A train held at Mapepe: 25 passengers on the Kitwe–Livingstone service taken to the Chilanga treatment centre, as the national count passes 1,480 cases and 29 deaths

A Zambia Railways passenger train bound for Livingstone was stopped in Chilanga on Monday 26 October after suspected cholera cases were found on board. In a written statement reported by News Diggers, the company's public relations manager, Sombe Longwani, said suspected cases had been reported aboard Passenger Train No. 601, travelling from Kitwe to Livingstone, and that the train was halted in the Chilanga area as a precaution while more than 20 passengers were taken to a health facility. The company said it is increasing surveillance on its passenger trains and working with health authorities to detect suspected cases earlier.

The Times of Zambia, whose crew was at the scene, reported that the southbound train was carrying about 500 passengers and was quarantined near Mapepe from about 07:00 after one passenger developed uncontrolled vomiting and diarrhoea. Railway officials reported the case and health authorities ordered the train not to proceed until medical staff had assessed it. By the paper's count, 25 passengers showed cholera symptoms and were moved to the Chilanga cholera treatment centre, where they were isolated and treated; the youngest was one year old and the oldest 80.

Vaccine for everyone on board

Kennedy Lishimpi, the Permanent Secretary for Technical Services at the Ministry of Health, told the Times of Zambia at the scene that the first case had boarded the train and fallen ill on it. "The initial case got onto the train, according to what we gathered in Kapiri Mposhi," he said. All the patients, including the first, were responding to treatment. Health authorities mobilised 500 doses of cholera vaccine so that every passenger could be vaccinated: "We have enough vaccines for them, and each person will be vaccinated," Lishimpi said. The Disaster Risk Management Division's national coordinator, Norman Chipakupaku, said the government provided food, water, tents and toilets for the stranded passengers.

We have enough vaccines for them, and each person will be vaccinated.
— Kennedy Lishimpi, Permanent Secretary for Technical Services, Ministry of Health, speaking to the Times of Zambia at the Mapepe quarantine site on Monday 26 October

The Times of Zambia also carried the Zambia National Public Health Institute's figures for the same day: 68 new cases and one death, taking the cumulative count since the outbreak was declared to 1,488 cases and 29 deaths, with 103 patients admitted. That is 174 more cases and two more deaths than the ZNPHI tally of 1,314 cases and 27 deaths that Lusaka Brief reported on Tuesday, and it matches the higher figure of 1,488 cases and 29 deaths which that report noted but could not then match to a published ZNPHI bulletin; the Times of Zambia now attributes it to the institute's update of Monday 26 October. The two accounts of the train differ on the number affected, more than 20 in the Zambia Railways statement as reported by News Diggers, whose headline says 21, against 25 in the Times of Zambia, and the Times reports symptoms rather than laboratory confirmation in the body of its article.

Sources: Times of Zambia, “Cholera on passenger train as 25 test positive” (27 Oct 2026); News Diggers, “21 passengers rushed to hospital after suspected cholera on ZRL train” (27 Oct 2026).