Tapiwa Gomo in Sumbe
Faustino Carlos is a 2 year-old child currently recovering at a cholera treatment centre in Sumbe district in Kwanza Sul province, about 320 km south of Luanda. He has been under treatment since the 25th of May, although his sickness started a week earlier.
“Faustino had diarrhea for the past week and was also vomiting,” says his mother, who is sitting next to Faustino in the pediatric ward. Half of the patients at the treatment center are children.
“When it started, we thought it was just common diarrhea and I got some roots from my sister-in-law, which I ground and gave him but his condition didn’t improve. We finally decided to take him to the provincial hospital when we realized that he was experiencing breathing problems.”
Her husband took her and Faustino on their motor bike to the provincial hospital, where they were eventually referred to the treatment centre. All cholera cases are managed and treated at the centre, located about one kilometer outside Sumbe.
“We were only told that it was cholera when we took him to the hospital. I didn’t know anything about cholera,” says Faustino’s mother who has yet to be convinced that her son has cholera.
When the International Federation Field Assessment Coordination Team (FACT) health member arrived at the centre, Faustino was crying and drooling. He looked so much in pain. This is the sad reality of cholera, which is caused by eating food or drinking water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. It has already affected 150,000 children, men and women in the Sumbe district.
It’s not certain how cholera arrived here, but it’s assumed that people traveling to Benguela from Luanda may have brought it, since Sumbe is a stopping point on the main highway between the two cities, both of which have had cholera for several months.
According to a WHO official in Kwanza Sul, Manuel Matos, the first case was detected when a man traveling from Luanda to Benguela showed some clinical symptom of cholera after he complained of diarrhea.
“Further investigation revealed that his two daughters had just been discharged from hospital in Boa Vista, Luanda.” After a few days, they had recorded more cases from the rural surroundings, and then cholera started spreading across the district.
The Ministry of health office in Sunde says 941 cases and 131 deaths have been recorded in Kwanza Sul since the 20th of April when the first case was detected.
Water and sanitation conditions in the area are very poor. On one side of the Kambongo River, scores of people are seen washing, bathing, swimming and gathering sand, while just across the river is a non-stop water-pump filling private tankers with river water for sale to the same communities who queue in numbers to buy the precious liquid.
A two-liter mug of alum is used to ‘treat’ more than 5000 liters of water. But Phillip Mudehwe, the FACT water engineer, says it only removes the dirt but doesn’t really purify the water, a situation which may have exposed Faustino and many people to cholera and other waterborne diseases.
The Red Cross in Kwanza Sul is concerned that, unlike other provinces where cases are going down, the numbers are still going up. “In Gabela, Quilenda, and other surrounding areas, more cases are being recorded.” says Carlos Alberto da Silva, the provincial secretary general of Angola Red Cross.
Carlos is convinced that with the necessary resources, volunteers can play an important role in stopping further spread. “It is important that our communities work together to improve water and sanitation in Sumbe and Kwanza Sul. The house-to-house visits have changed the attitude of many and there is now acceptance by many communities that they need to improve their hygiene and sanitation conditions,” he adds.
The health posts that the Red Cross rehabilitated four years ago to give communities access to basic health services in remote rural areas are very useful during this difficult period. This was made possible thanks to the Norwegian and Danish Red Cross societies together with the International Federation who supported the rehabilitation programme after 27 years of civil war in Angola.
“We can’t just let them get sick and die. Even though we don’t have enough resources, the little that we have will change the way of life for many people in our province and we will continue our efforts,” says Daniel, a Red Cross volunteer for eighteen years.
Daniel says that there is a need to increase the number of volunteers across the province, and provide them with transport so that they can get to every community.
On May 18, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies launched an emergency appeal seeking CHF 1,206,656. The FACT team currently in Angola is working on determining further actions to support the cholera response and to build capacity in Angola Red Cross volunteers for the future. Many people in Sumbe and other provinces across the country are counting on this support.