Factors contributing to recurrence of cholera outbreaks in George compund, Lusaka district.

Abstract

Cholera is endemic in Zambia - its cycle coincides with the rainy season every year and is directly related to the lack of access to proper water and sanitation facilities. The first outbreak of cholera was reported in the country in 1977/1978 having the major outbreak occurred in 1990 and since then cholera cases have been registered every year throughout the country (WHO, 2010). In Lusaka, cases and deaths mostly appear in the peri-urban of western and southern suburbs of the city, characterized by severe overcrowding and almost non-existent of water and sanitation facilities and poor drainage state due to blockages by heaps of garbage generated everywhere in the city and most of the compounds hardly have drainage systems leading to floods in the rainy season (WHO, 2010). This study was conducted in George compound, Lusaka. This compound was selected because it is one of the largest compounds with a population of 102,309 and large numbers of cholera cases come from this compound and many lives are lost due to cholera every year. It was for this reason that this study was conducted to determine the factors that contributing to the recurrence of cholera outbreaks in George compound, Lusaka. A descriptive cross sectional study design was used. The respondents were selected using stratified sampling method to stratify the compound into 10 zones and systematic sampling was later the sample size was determined from the study population. A sample size of 50 households was used. The study population consisted of the head of households aged 18 years and above, both males and females who have lived in George compound for the past 5 years and were available at the time of data collection in the month of October, 2010 because they were be able to give data on the contributing factors to the recurrence of cholera outbreaks in their area.