A diarrhoea outbreak has hit Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, following weeks of uncollected garbage, sewer blockages and erratic water supplies, the state-owned Herald daily reported on Friday.
More than 400 cases of diarrhoea have been recorded in Mabvuku and Tafara, two of the capital’s suburbs, but there is no confirmation of deaths that have been linked to the outbreak.
”There has been an increase in diarrhoea cases … in this district,” Harare’s acting director of health services, Stanley Mungofa, was quoted as saying.
”In week 48 [December] there were 411 cases reported while in week 49 there were 459 cases.
”However, in week 50, we recorded a reduction in cases. These figures are above what we normally experience in the whole city.”
Mungofa said that the outbreak was not cholera.
Health officials were monitoring the situation at clinics in the two suburbs in a bid to mitigate the situation, Mungofa said.
Health Minister David Parirenyatwa said the government intervened in the outbreak because the situation had spun out of control.
”The government is taking up the issue, they [council] will start excavating all the areas that have blockages and repair what needs to be repaired,” he told the daily.
”I am also told we will be getting water here [at Mabvuku and Tafara]. If all that happens, this problem will be a thing of the past,” he said. — AFP
