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Typhoid claims another life in Mabvuku
Combined Harare
Residents Association (CHRA)
March 11, 2010
A man (name supplied)
lost his life during the early hours of today after succumbing to
typhoid, a deadly disease that has hit the eastern suburb. The man
lived in Nyamaturi; the street that has since recorded more than
fifty cases of typhoid and witnessed five deaths within the past
three weeks.
The Combined Harare
Residents Association (CHRA) visited the area yesterday (10 March
2010) and got information to the effect that sporadic cases of the
disease are also sprouting in other areas of Mabvuku-Tafara. One
of the Health Promoters who works at Mabvuku Poly Clinic said that
they had received at least two cases from Shashe Street, 3km away
from Nyamaturi Street, the New Stands area in Mabvuku as well as
Tafara Primary School. It has also been revealed that a number of
school children from Simudzai Primary school have been affected.
This was established during an interview with one of the teachers
at the school who declined to be named. The teacher's child
also contracted the disease and was still in admission at the Beatrice
Infectious Diseases Hospital at the time of the interview.
Residents suspect that
the typhoid outbreak has been caused by the poor quality of water
that is being consumed in the suburb. Although the suburb has been
receiving consistent water supplies from the City of Harare for
the past two weeks, residents are still skeptical to use the water
for drinking purposes; a situation that has seen most of them fetching
water from wells and the boreholes drilled by UNICEF.
However, the Health
promoter who talked to the CHRA team pointed out that there is a
need to ascertain whether the outbreak has been caused by the quality
of water or not as there are other activities being carried out
by residents in Mabvuku-Tafara which could also be potential sources
of the typhoid outbreak. The Health promoter said that a significant
number of residents is selling raw fish, pork and chicken cutlets
at the different shopping centers in the suburb. These vendors do
not refrigerate the foodstuffs and by the time they get sold out
they would have lost their freshness. Moreover, the selling points
are unhygienic since they are open spaces that are sometimes near
garbage dumps where house flies are resident.
Residents pointed out
that there is a need for the Ministry of Health, the City of Harare
and other players in Water, Sanitation and Hygienic (WASH) health
to embark on civic education programmes to educate and raise awareness
among residents on issues of hygiene. This will go a long way in
preventing the outbreak from spreading and going out of control.
One of the teachers from Simudzai Primary School also voiced the
same sentiments on the need for civic education. He said that the
challenge with typhoid is that it has a long gestation period (up
to two weeks) before symptoms get serious and many residents get
sick without seeking medical help because they just think it is
a minor fever and by the time they seek medical attention, the situation
will be difficult to control. Residents also said that there were
more unreported cases of typhoid as some residents were not seeking
medical help due to lack of money to pay for consultation fees.
The consultation fee at Council clinics is $US5.
CHRA is in the process
of coordinating with other WASH stakeholders to promote hygiene
in Mabvuku-Tafara through information dissemination and civic education.
The Association remains committed to fighting for the residents'
cause and advocating for good, transparent and accountable local
governance as well as lobbying for quality municipal services.
Visit the CHRA
fact
sheet
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