News / Local
Bulawayo's diarrhoea outbreak worsens
10 Sep 2022 at 01:26hrs | Views
Bulawayo has recorded 1,200 diarrhoea cases following at outbreak of the disease in July, council officials have confirmed.
The first cases of diarrhoea were recorded in the Pumula surburb and now have spread across the city.
The city is facing water crisis with 72hours water shedding or even longer.
In an interview with NewZimbabwe.com, Bulawayo City Council (BCC) corporate communications manager, Nesisa Mpofu, said Bulawayo is experiencing a surge in diarrhoea cases.
"As of 06 September 2022, we have 1,213 cumulative cases reported. The first cases of diarrhoea were reported in July in ward 17 and have now spread to Nkulumane, Emakhandeni and Northern suburbs clinics," she said.
Affected suburbs include Pumula, Luveve, Nkulumane, Mzilikazi, Tshabalala.
Mpofu said, as BCC, they have waived clinic charges on diarrhoea patients among a number of interventions they are working on to help control the spread of the disease.
"The City of Bulawayo is implementing a robust, context-specific emergency response mechanism that includes some of the following interventions; Active case finding, contact tracing, Health education, risk assessment, waiver of BCC clinic charges on outbreak mode among others," she said.
She said that the main causes include risk factors such as water scarcity, unsafe alternative water sources, poor health seeking behaviour, among others.
"In attending to these the City of Bulawayo notes that we have challenges with the refusal by patients to produce stool for analysis, wrong addresses being given out at health facility level thereby hindering patient follow up," she added.
BCC recently dismissed social media reports claiming that the city's water was contaminated with sewage and not safe for consumption.
On Tuesday a message circulated on various social media platforms, purportedly from the local authority where it was claimed that the city's water had been contaminated by sewage from broken pipes hence was not safe for drinking and the cause for the outbreak of diarrhoea.
The first cases of diarrhoea were recorded in the Pumula surburb and now have spread across the city.
The city is facing water crisis with 72hours water shedding or even longer.
In an interview with NewZimbabwe.com, Bulawayo City Council (BCC) corporate communications manager, Nesisa Mpofu, said Bulawayo is experiencing a surge in diarrhoea cases.
"As of 06 September 2022, we have 1,213 cumulative cases reported. The first cases of diarrhoea were reported in July in ward 17 and have now spread to Nkulumane, Emakhandeni and Northern suburbs clinics," she said.
Affected suburbs include Pumula, Luveve, Nkulumane, Mzilikazi, Tshabalala.
Mpofu said, as BCC, they have waived clinic charges on diarrhoea patients among a number of interventions they are working on to help control the spread of the disease.
"The City of Bulawayo is implementing a robust, context-specific emergency response mechanism that includes some of the following interventions; Active case finding, contact tracing, Health education, risk assessment, waiver of BCC clinic charges on outbreak mode among others," she said.
She said that the main causes include risk factors such as water scarcity, unsafe alternative water sources, poor health seeking behaviour, among others.
"In attending to these the City of Bulawayo notes that we have challenges with the refusal by patients to produce stool for analysis, wrong addresses being given out at health facility level thereby hindering patient follow up," she added.
BCC recently dismissed social media reports claiming that the city's water was contaminated with sewage and not safe for consumption.
On Tuesday a message circulated on various social media platforms, purportedly from the local authority where it was claimed that the city's water had been contaminated by sewage from broken pipes hence was not safe for drinking and the cause for the outbreak of diarrhoea.
Source - NewZimbabwe
