ANY disease outbreak requires collective effort to fight successfully.
This is one of the greatest lessons COVID-19 taught us, where we saw concerted effort win the fight against humanity’s biggest threat in recent history.
And we must now apply this principle in our fight against cholera, which is ravaging some of our communities.
In the past week, we have seen Government double its efforts in ensuring that the outbreak is brought under control, and that we do not lose any more of our citizens to the waterborne disease.
We’ve seen Government provide clean drinking water to township residents, as well as the distribution of needed drugs to fight the outbreak.
We have also seen efforts to clean parts of our city, as well as mass sensitisation of citizens about the dangers of cholera, and how to prevent themselves from getting infected.
But all these efforts are not good enough in themselves, unless there is corresponding effort from citizens – all citizens – to stop the spread of the disease.
We must always remember that our actions will always affect the next person because, whether we like or not, we are all inter-connected and interdependent.
This is why we want to echo Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary for technical services Kennedy Lishimpi’s call on churches to actively take part in the fight by ensuring that their premises of worship are clean.
“Churches should make sure that their sanitation is good. We have sent all these messages to the public places to improve sanitation and we are doing inspections of all premises,” he said, warning that churches that fail to comply risk closure.
We saw during the COVID pandemic how churches, working with Government, helped to prevent further spread of the disease.
This is because of the pivotal role that the Church plays in our society. The Church and all stakeholders must get involved in this fight.
As individuals, we must get back to the basics of hygiene. We picked some good hygiene habits during the COVID- 19 pandemic, and we must not abandon those habits, such as regular washing of hands.
They could save our lives.
Cholera is beatable, but this can only happen when we have a mindset change, when we resolve to be fully responsible for our own health – and we must.
We must all be concerned at the outbreak of this disease, especially that it is very preventable.
But what is sad is that we have been having cholera outbreaks almost every year, but do not really seem to learn much.
We have continued with practices that are very detrimental to our own health, such as improper disposal of waste, including human waste.
Indeed, as Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development Permanent Secretary for technical services Nicholas Phiri observes, there is need for a mindset change.
We also commend Government through the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development on their plan to bury shallow wells in hard-hit areas like Kanyama. This is very important in preventing future outbreaks.
We must win this fight, and we must win it ultimately by ensuring that we do not have any outbreaks at all in future.
We must all do our part and live.
We can only win together
ANY disease outbreak requires collective effort to fight successfully.
This is one of the greatest lessons COVID-19 taught us, where we saw concerted effort win the fight against humanity’s biggest threat in recent history.
And we must now apply this principle in our fight against cholera, which is ravaging some of our communities.
In the past week, we have seen Government double its efforts in ensuring that the outbreak is brought under control, and that we do not lose any more of our citizens to the waterborne disease.
We’ve seen Government provide clean drinking water to township residents, as well as the distribution of needed drugs to fight the outbreak.
We have also seen efforts to clean parts of our city, as well as mass sensitisation of citizens about the dangers of cholera, and how to prevent themselves from getting infected.
But all these efforts are not good enough in themselves, unless there is corresponding effort from citizens – all citizens – to stop the spread of the disease.
We must always remember that our actions will always affect the next person because, whether we like or not, we are all inter-connected and interdependent.
This is why we want to echo Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary for technical services Kennedy Lishimpi’s call on churches to actively take part in the fight by ensuring that their premises of worship are clean.
“Churches should make sure that their sanitation is good. We have sent all these messages to the public places to improve sanitation and we are doing inspections of all premises,” he said, warning that churches that fail to comply risk closure.
We saw during the COVID pandemic how churches, working with Government, helped to prevent further spread of the disease.
This is because of the pivotal role that the Church plays in our society. The Church and all stakeholders must get involved in this fight.
As individuals, we must get back to the basics of hygiene. We picked some good hygiene habits during the COVID- 19 pandemic, and we must not abandon those habits, such as regular washing of hands.
They could save our lives.
Cholera is beatable, but this can only happen when we have a mindset change, when we resolve to be fully responsible for our own health – and we must.
We must all be concerned at the outbreak of this disease, especially that it is very preventable.
But what is sad is that we have been having cholera outbreaks almost every year, but do not really seem to learn much.
We have continued with practices that are very detrimental to our own health, such as improper disposal of waste, including human waste.
Indeed, as Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development Permanent Secretary for technical services Nicholas Phiri observes, there is need for a mindset change.
We also commend Government through the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development on their plan to bury shallow wells in hard-hit areas like Kanyama. This is very important in preventing future outbreaks.
We must win this fight, and we must win it ultimately by ensuring that we do not have any outbreaks at all in future.
We must all do our part and live.