Jumoke Olasunkanmi
Months after the outbreak of Anthrax in Nigeria, other African countries including Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe are recording incidents of the disease, a WHO report released on Monday has revealed.
Anthrax is a bacteria disease caused by the Bacillus Anthracis bacteria, that occurs naturally in the soil and affects domestic and wild animals.
For Zambia, it is its biggest outbreak since 2011. As at November, there had been 684 suspected cases, 25 confirmed cases and 4 deaths.
Kenya also recorded 3 deaths and over 200 suspected cases.
Although anthrax disease is usually endemic in animals, it can, in rare cases, affect humans as reported in Uganda with 13 deaths, and Kenya with 1 death.
According to the WHO, these outbreaks, like many other health and environmental challenges, can be linked to several factors including “climate change, food insecurity, low risk perception and exposure to the disease through the handling of mmeatof infected animals.”
WHO also noted that with the scale of the outbreak in Zambia, there is a heightened risk of cross-border animal and human spread which could make it a regional problem if not properly contained.
Consequently, the organisation’s Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, stated that it had intensified measures to curtail the outbreaks through prevention and vaccinations, noting that it had vaccinated over 122,000 cattles, sheeps and goats and has also set aside 400,000 vaccines for high-risk districts in Zambia.
“To end these outbreaks, we must break the cycle of infection by first preventing the disease in animals. We are supporting the ongoing national outbreak control efforts by providing expertise as well as reinforcing collaboration with partner agencies for a common approach to safeguard human and animal health,” the WHO regional director stated.
