Africa's first oral cholera vaccine plant breaks ground in November, the President says, as the outbreak that prompted a 709,000-dose campaign stands at 1,622 cases and 30 deaths

In the middle of a cholera outbreak that has needed imported vaccine, the President has set a date for making it at home. The Zambia Daily Mail reported on Friday 30 October that Hakainde Hichilema, speaking as he swore in Christopher Kalila as Minister of Housing and Charles Milupi as Minister of Transport and Logistics, said construction of what he described as Africa's first oral cholera vaccine manufacturing plant would begin next month at the Lusaka South Multi-Facility Economic Zone. The paper said the plant is expected to produce 20 million doses a year and that Hichilema, who is the African Union's cholera champion, called it part of Zambia's contribution to the continental goal of eliminating cholera by 2030.

We are proud as a nation.
— President Hakainde Hichilema, speaking at the swearing-in of ministers Christopher Kalila and Charles Milupi, as quoted by the Zambia Daily Mail on Friday 30 October

The project is not new. Anadolu Agency reported on 8 October 2024 that Zambia and China had signed a memorandum of understanding at State House the day before for the country's first cholera vaccine plant, a joint venture between the Industrial Development Corporation and Jijia International Medical Technology Corporation, with a first phase costed at US$37 million and output then expected at about three million doses, and with China to donate about three million doses before production began. Hichilema said at the time that Zambia should be seen as a location to manufacture for a bigger market. The 20 million doses a year the Daily Mail now reports is a different figure from the 2024 one; the reports read for this story do not explain the change.

The outbreak the plant is too late for

The vaccine for the present outbreak came from abroad. Health Minister Roma Chilengi told Parliament this week, as reported by Zambia Monitor and the Daily Mail, that 1,622 cases and 30 deaths had been recorded in 20 districts of six provinces since 28 July, with 228 cases laboratory-confirmed; 16 of the dead died in their communities before reaching a health facility. Of the cases, 1,488 had recovered and been discharged and 104 were still admitted as of 28 October, and the most recent 24-hour period had brought 74 new cases in 12 districts and no deaths. Lusaka Province accounts for 1,090 cases, Central for 298, Luapula for 133, Northern for 88, Southern for 11 and the Copperbelt for two. The International Coordinating Group released 782,147 doses of oral cholera vaccine, and 709,018 people aged a year and over had been vaccinated, 91 per cent of the target, most of them in ten wards of Lusaka District, four in Chibombo and one in Chongwe.

The Treasury has released K13 million to the Ministry of Water Development and Sanitation for emergency safe water supply, and Chilengi said the responsible institutions had to make sure the money turned promptly into safe water for affected and high-risk communities. Hichilema, the Daily Mail reported, said hygiene had to be maintained alongside vaccination and that the government would keep investing in measures against cholera and other public health threats. The plant's start date, the 20-million-dose capacity and the economic-zone site rest on the Daily Mail's report of the President's remarks; no separate statement from the Industrial Development Corporation or the Chinese partner appeared in the reporting read for this story.

Sources: Zambia Daily Mail, “Cholera vaccine plant building starts Nov” (30 Oct 2026); Zambia Monitor, “30 people have died in Zambia's cholera outbreak —Health minister” (29 Oct 2026); Anadolu Agency, “Zambia, China sign MOU to establish African nation's 1st cholera vaccine plant” (8 Oct 2024).