Rospotrebnadzor will help Zimbabwe in drawing up a cholera control program, the head of the group, deputy director for clinical and analytical work at the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor Natalia Pshenichnaya told a TASS correspondent after the results of the work in Zimbabwe.
“Russian approaches to anti-epidemic measures, developed over decades, are effective in any conditions, including in Africa“, she said and added: “We offered to cooperate with the Zimbabwean side in developing such measures adapted to the Zimbabwean healthcare system“.
The Ministry of Health of Zimbabwe has agreed to conduct trainings on cholera epidemiology and surveillance, differential and laboratory diagnostics of cholera and other similar diseases, approaches to treating such patients and criteria for discharge from hospitals.
"We also plan to develop scientific and practical cooperation in the field of studying the quality of water in water sources, natural reservoirs and the degree of wastewater treatment. The signing of a memorandum between Rospotrebnadzor and the Ministry of Health of Zimbabwe on cooperation in the field of sanitary and epidemiological well-being is currently in the process of approval", adds Pshenichnaya.
According to her, “colleagues from Zimbabwe are very interested in the supply of diagnostic tests and equipment based on mobile laboratories.“ “The countries cooperating with us received such laboratories as a gift from the Russian government. They are already working in Uganda, Burundi, the Republic of Congo, Guinea, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo."
„Zimbabwe, like other African countries, periodically experiences an increase in cholera cases“, Pshenichnaya noted. - During the previous outbreak from February 2023 to June 2024, almost 34.5 thousand people fell ill. Zimbabwean health officials believed that they had already coped with the problem. But cholera returned: since November 2024, about 350 cases have been registered. In this regard, the local Ministry of Health turned to the head of Rospotrebnadzor Anna Popova with a request for assistance. As a result, a team of infectious disease specialists, epidemiologists, laboratory diagnostics and a mobile laboratory were sent to Zimbabwe, who worked on numerous outbreaks of infectious diseases in Africa.“
According to Pshenichnaya, the specialists visited patients in cholera hospitals in the city of Harare and the province of Mashonaland Central, discussed issues of epidemiology, laboratory diagnostics and treatment with local doctors, visited two laboratories and assessed the state of the water supply and sewage systems.
„We concluded that Zimbabwe needs to take comprehensive measures to combat cholera, which include not only alleviating the situation of those who have already fallen ill and improving the supply of drinking water to residents, but also preventing outbreaks,“ said Pshenichnaya.
It is necessary to ensure the cleanliness of sources of drinking water, to assess the degree of contamination of sewage discharges entering open water bodies used by local residents, and to optimize patient management protocols."
According to the group's experts, support for health workers in Zimbabwe should begin with appropriate training in cholera epidemiology and surveillance, something that health workers in Zimbabwe are very interested in.
"Obviously in Zimbabwe, the burden on the health system during periods of increased morbidity is quite high, and for example, cholera patients are simply discharged after clinical recovery, when they can remain carriers of Vibrio cholerae and infect others," emphasized Pshenichenko.
Patients with mild forms of the disease are usually treated at home and can infect others. In Russia, cholera is under strict control of the sanitary and epidemiological service, and thanks to strict anti-epidemic measures, the prerequisites for local transmission of cholera have been practically eliminated.