Search This Blog

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Zimbabwe : Harare typhoid cases continue to rise

Via The Zimbabwean :

" Cases of typhoid are continuing to rise in Harare, where at least 90 people have been hospitalised and more than a thousand are suspected to have contracted the disease.

Residents in and around the capital have been on high alert since the first typhoid cases were confirmed last year. But in recent months, the combination of extreme heat, summer rains and dilapidated basic municipal services, has resulted in perfect conditions for the disease to spread

"We have attended to over 600 cases in Kuwadzana alone," city health director Prosper Chonzi was quoted as saying in the state media this week. The MDC-T meanwhile said on Wednesday that more than one thousand Harare residents had been treated this month.

The bacterial disease, which spreads most easily in areas without proper sanitation, causes vomiting, fever and diarrhoea and the public have been urged to use good hygiene to prevent the situation from worsening.

The city and surrounding areas have been struck by severe water shortages since last year, with some areas not being supplied with clean water for many weeks. The shortages have sometimes resulted in residents fighting each other while trying to access water from the limited number of boreholes across the city."

No comments:

Post a Comment