EDITORIAL: As cholera, dengue plague Tanzania
There is an expression in English, on ‘choosing between plague and cholera!’
Dating back to the cholera epidemic which hit Europe beginning in 1830, the expression was gradually adopted to stress that neither of these two deadly infections was an option – and, as such, must be avoided like the legendary ‘Black Death’ plague which devastated Europe in the mid-14th century.
As reported in The Citizen last Wednesday, cholera has resurfaced for the umpteenth time in the nation’s de facto capital Dar es Salaam, where it has already killed one person, with 32 others hospitalized for treatment.
This comes following outbreaks of the equally-deadly dengue fever in the Dar es Salaam, Dodoma and Singida Regions last April, hospitalizing scores and killing a handful – thanks to early diagnosis and quick correct response by our medics and political/administrative leaderships.
Perhaps to relieve the tension, the cartoonist ‘Kipanya’ depicted caricatures of ‘Dengue’ and ‘Kipindupindu’ (Cholera) in the Mwananchi edition of Saturday, June 1 this year...
But, this aside, it is somewhat embarrassing that cholera still plagues (pun intended here) us in this day and age of high tech advances and a growing national economy.
The malady is closely associated with filthy surroundings usually resulting from inadequate sanitation infrastructure and related services.
This is compounded by poor personal hygiene, improper or nonexistent functional human waste disposal, and squatter-settlements inaccessible to sewage-collecting trucks.
As noted in The Citizen last Saturday, squalid surroundings and filthy water supplies fuel the spread of cholera to a great extent.
These two are, therefore, major challenges that must be effectively tackled soonest, if we are to truly consign the cholera malady to the Dustbin of History – and forge ahead as a healthy cholera-free nation that does not have to choose between cholera and other plagues.
