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Mpulungu District has recorded six new cholera cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the cumulative number of infections in Northern Province to 280, authorities have revealed.
The cases have been reported across four districts — Mpulungu, Mbala, Senga Hill, and Nsama — according to Northern Province Deputy Permanent Secretary Beauty Undi-Phiri.
Phiri disclosed the figures during a courtesy call by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Water Development and Sanitation, Romans Kamanga, in Kasama on Thursday.
Of the cumulative 280 cases, 80 are laboratory-confirmed, 221 patients have been successfully treated and discharged, while seven remain admitted to treatment centers.
Read More: Government moves to contain cholera outbreak in Mpulungu, Mbala
“The Ministry of Health has intensified its vaccination campaign against cholera in the affected areas. In Mpulungu District, vaccinations were concluded on Wednesday, while Mbala and Nsama districts commenced today,” Phiri said.
She expressed serious concern over the poor sanitation levels among residents in the affected areas and called for a mindset change.
Phiri also called for improved sanitation infrastructure, stressing the need to move away from the widespread use of pit latrines in the province, which she cited as a leading cause of the cholera outbreak.
“The rising levels of water in Lake Tanganyika are causing some houses and pit latrines to be submerged. This is the same water that residents living by the lake shores utilize,” Phiri stated, highlighting the critical contamination risk.
Meanwhile, Kamanga stressed the urgent need to regulate certain activities in cholera-prone areas like Mpulungu to help curb the spread of the disease.
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