Research #1 - Initial
- Ang Yong Xiang Adwin
- Oct 19, 2018
- 3 min read
The first I take when I do research would be observation, however, since the likelihood of a flu pandemic occurring in Singapore is very little and I would not want one anyways, the next step would be to find out online.
Cholera Outbreak in Zimbabwe on 6th September 2018
Public health response
On 3 October 2018, an oral cholera vaccine mass vaccination campaign started in Harare City and surrounding areas such as Chitungwiza and Epworth. WHO is supporting the MoHCC on a strategy for rolling out the vaccination campaign, as well as implementing the campaign and sensitizing the public about the vaccine. More than 600 health workers have been trained to carry out the campaign. On 27 September 2018, 500 000 doses have arrived in Harare. In total, 2.7 million doses have been approved for two rounds of vaccination.
WHO and experts from the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) are providing technical oversight into case management and providing guidance on the interpretation of laboratory findings to guide the choice of antibiotics.
Four cholera treatment centres (CTCs)have been established. UNICEF has prepositioned seven tents at Glenview for the CTC and Oxfam is providing mobile toilets in three CTCs.
The key risk communication and community engagement interventions have been on raising awareness on cholera prevention through the mass media and social media, and working with specific community groups, including Apostolic sect leaders and Apostolic women’s groups.
Sixty volunteers have been deployed to provide risk communication, community engagement and social mobilization support to CTCs in Budiriro and Glen View. Health and hygiene promotionis taking place through drama shows at schools and business centres, roadshows and door-to-door visits, which also focuses on identification and case referral.
Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) activities include enforcement of regulations for food vendors, City of Harare fixing burst water pipes and increasing the water supply to hotspots, with private sector players supporting installation of water tanks and water trucking.
UNICEF is supporting distribution of non-food items(soap, buckets), along with Oxfam, Christian Care, Mercy Corps and Welthungerhilfe (WHH), as well as key components of community mobilization.
WHO has sent supplies to treat 3800 people and arrangements are in place for additional supplies to arrive in the coming days. In addition, more than 44 000 litres of ringers lactate from South Africa have arrived in country and the RDTs are being cleared from the airport.
Since the cholera outbreak was declared on 6 September 2018, weekly meetings of the Inter-Agency Coordination Committee on Health (IACCH) have been held.
On 12 September 2018, following the declaration of the cholera outbreak as a state of disaster, the Cabinet Committee on Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Management was reactivated.
On 18 September 2018, the national government set up an inter-ministerial committee on the cholera outbreak, involving all major government stakeholders, to provide leadership and to monitor the cholera response efforts and provide regular briefs to the President.
On 21 September 2018, the National Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) was activated, with support provided by local business organizations. The Incident Command Structure (ICS) was finalized and will be published by the EOC.
On 1 October 2018, Econet began fixing Information and Communications Technology equipment in the EOC in MoHCC of Zimbabwe to support real time reporting.
On 29 September 2018, a rapid assessment of surveillance was conducted in coordination with the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC).
I bolded the words that provided areas of action that everyone takes when an outbreak occurs, these are areas where we can further develop our idea towards.
The main areas they cover are:
Ensure enough supplies of vaccines
Setting up Emergency Facilities to spread the vaccines
Raising awareness of the flu through multiple ways: Social Media & Door to door
Enforcement of hygiene practices
Provide means of ensuring proper hygiene (Such as giving out soap)
This got me thinking, what if instead of focusing on creating an idea/solution that can solve a problem, we can focus on providing assistance to involved parties such as Non-Government Organizations and Governments, as they already have in place many procedures which are well thought out and tested on the field many times. This will require more research to look into.
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