Author's Name:	Naume Ndanatsei Watyoka
Subject Area:	Social Science and Humanities
Subject	Psychology
Section	Research Paper

Cholera, Cholera outbreak, Harare

This study sought to highlight factors that led to the cholera outbreak in Harare Urban District. The cholera outbreak of 2008/2009 in Zimbabwe was a disaster. Harare Urban District had 17,132 cases and 495 deaths from the country total of 98,592 cumulative cholera cases and 4,288 deaths from reported between August 2008 and July 2009. Information was sought from key informants from International Non-Governmental Organisations (INGOs) and United Nations. Data was collected using face to face interviews. The findings are that erratic water supply, broken down Water and Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH) infrastructure, poor personal hygiene, person to person transmission, poor surveillance techniques and broken down health system led to the outbreaks as a result of a complex socio-economic and political environment. It is recommended that WASH and Health should remain the country’s priorities in terms of national budgeting to ensure that people’s health and lives are protected, restore public health infrastructure and build capacity of local authorities. Regular surveillance and early detection as well as working with communities to empower them is needed. Identification of all risk factors which make people vulnerable to cholera should be addressed such as overcrowding by managing urbanisation.