🌍Watery days

Southern Africa is currently having a moment. And it isn’t a glorious one, especially if it entails taking several bathroom breaks.

What’s happening?

Since 2022, Africa has been witnessing its deadliest cholera outbreak yet. Cholera is caused by bacteria that infect the intestine producing toxins that cause the body to produce large amounts of water passed either as stool or vomit, which can cause rapid dehydration, killing one out of every ten such cases on average.

So far, Southern Africa has been hardest hit:

1. Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe have collectively pooled over 120,000 cases and 2600 deaths since January 2023.

2. Hardest hit Democratic Republic of Congo sits atop the pile with over 70,000 cases and 600 deaths to date.

3. Only recently, Nigeria reported its first cases with its death toll already at 15 in less than a week since the first reported case.

A trifecta?

While the obvious culprit in this situation would be poor hygiene, scientists are starting to establish a pattern suggesting that unchecked and unrestricted travel between affected countries is most likely fueling the outbreak. And with floods caused by the rainy season coming into the mix, we have a rather explosive (like literally) cocktail brewing.

Now…what? Despite having implemented sanitary measures across all affected localities, response and improvement in transmission rates have generally been poor. While the cholera vaccine represents a glimmer of hope, it is currently being produced by only one manufacturer in South Korea, Eubiologics, which is currently manufacturing at full capacity.

Because we hate to play counselor, we’d rather suggest you sing along to what should have been a popular rhyme in your nursery school days…”Always wash your hands before eating…”🎶🎶