Zambia News

Malaria is among the important factors affecting socio-economic development in Zambia. It kills approximately over a thousand people per year with about 311 cases per 1000 population. Despite the government’s increased domestic funding and good external support to the malaria programme, resource gaps remain. This has necessitated the development of an investment case, continued advocacy for increased resources and creation of awareness in the communities to accelerate malaria elimination efforts.

On 9 April 2019 Zambia commemorated the World Health Day under the global theme of Universal Health Coverage. The commemoration had a particular focus on Primary Health Care as a means for advancing progress on achieving the 2030 SDG target on Universal Health Coverage under Goal number 3 on health. The commemoration was held under the local theme: “Universal Health Coverage, my responsibility”.

The United Nations in Zambia has welcomed the launch of the Zambia Ending AIDS and Free to Shine Campaigns by the First Lady of the Republic of Zambia, Mrs Esther Lungu which took place on the 11 of April 2019 in the City of Livingstone. The “Free to Shine campaign” is an initiative of the wives of African Heads of State who have come forward to end Child AIDS and keeping mothers alive as part of their contribution towards the global goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.  

The Ministry of Health launched the guidelines for Management of Latent Tuberculosis (TB) Infection during the 2019 World TB Day commemoration to strengthen the treatment of the disease at primary care level. The guidelines are meant to contribute to further reduction of TB cases in the country and support efforts towards its elimination. Although TB is preventable and curable, it has continued to be a major cause of ill-health and death in the country. The disease is also the commonest opportunistic infection among people living with HIV.

The Zambian government has committed itself to ending cholera by the year 2025 through the validation of the national multi-sectoral cholera elimination plan for the period 2019 to 2025. Four cabinet ministers signed a pledge of commitment to end cholera in the country at the closing ceremony of a workshop which was organized by the Ministry of Health to finalise and validate the cholera elimination plan. The multi-sectoral cholera elimination plan will be used to mobilise resources and guide the strategies and activities to be implemented in the country in order to eliminate cholera.

Zambia continues to experience outbreaks of communicable diseases such anthrax, cholera, chickenpox, dysentery, measles, rabies and typhoid and is also vulnerable to natural disasters such as droughts and floods. It shares borders with 8 countries and faces the risk of importation of other diseases. More recently, WHO classified Zambia to be at very high risk of importation of the Ebola Virus Disease from the Democratic Republic of Congo as a result of the ongoing outbreak in North Kivu and Ituri provinces.

Zambia has been classified by the World Health Organisation to be at very high risk of importation of cases of Ebola virus disease (EVD) from the ongoing epidemic of the disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo due to the heightened transmission of the virus in North Kivu and Ituri provinces. The WHO Regional Office for Africa is therefore supporting the 10 countries bordering the DRC to heighten vigilance by strengthening capacity for preventing, detecting, investigating and responding quickly to potential Ebola threats.

The outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in Beni, North Kivu province poses a risk of the disease spreading beyond the borders of the country to its neighboring countries including Zambia.

Zambia is one of the three countries that have been selected for piloting the 3rd edition of the Technical Guidelines for Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) for the WHO African Region.