Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa led members of his cabinet in receiving doses of an oral cholera vaccine, to encourage Zimbabweans to get vaccinated against the infectious disease.
A cholera outbreak in the southern African country has killed at least 50 people, mainly in the capital Harare.
Cholera is an infectious disease that causes severe watery diarrhoea, which can lead to dehydration and even death if untreated. It is caused by eating food or drinking water contaminated with a bacterium called Vibrio cholerae.
Following the outbreak, the Zimbabwe government rolled out a vaccination drive in the city’s high-density suburbs as part of measures to contain the spread of the disease and is targeting more than 1.4 million people.
Members of parliament also received the vaccine recently.
The vaccination programme, which started on October 3 will also be rolled over to other areas to the southern, eastern and northern parts of the city.
Health officials have expressed concern that people in the areas that had been hard hit by the outbreak are not presenting themselves to be vaccinated in huge numbers as had been anticipated.
There is no bad time to get your cholera vaccine, even during a cabinet meeting!
We have embarked on a vaccination drive to help protect our communities from this disease, & we encourage those in high density areas to get vaccinated.
Let’s work together towards a healthy Zimbabwe pic.twitter.com/p7SgCYozSD— President of Zimbabwe (@edmnangagwa) October 16, 2018
