The Sunday News
FOURTEEN people, among them six children under the age of five, died of common diarrhoea countrywide in one week, bringing to 47 the total number of people who have succumbed to the disease so far this year.
The six children succumbed to rota virus, a proxy of diarrhoea.
Rota virus is the most common cause of diarrhoea among children under the age of five years and is prevalent during the winter season.
Although statistics for the same period last year were not immediately available for comparison, an official from the Ministry of Health and Child Care told Sunday News that the country had surpassed the cases experienced in the same period last year.
According to statistics obtained from the Ministry of Health and Child Care, Harare Metropolitan Province recorded the highest number of deaths, with five people having given in to the disease at different health institutions around the province.
Mashonaland East, Masvingo and Manicaland provinces each recorded three deaths, to give a total of 14 deaths recorded in the period under review.
The weekly report by the Health Ministry for the week ending 18 January shows that 11 118 cases were recorded during the period under review with about 50 percent of the cases being children under the age of five.
Manicaland and Mashonaland East provinces had the highest number of diarrhoea cases in the third week of the year after respectively recording 1 949 and 1 711 cases.
An average of just over 10 000 cases of diarrhoea were recorded weekly throughout the country in the first three weeks of the year, with a cumulative 30 613 cases of the disease having been recorded so far.
No cases of cholera have been recorded this year.
Ministry of Health and Child Care director of epidemiology and disease control Dr Portia Manangazira said the high number of cases of common diarrhoea was a result of the high rains most parts of the country have been receiving since the start of the year.
Dr Manangazira added that a number of communities in the country did not have proper sanitation facilities, a situation she said has left the communities prone to outbreaks of water borne diseases such as diarrhoea, typhoid and cholera.
The 2012 national census report shows that 24 percent of the country’s population practised open air defecation due to lack of toilet facilities, while 25 percent of the country’s population used unprotected water sources.
Dr Manangazira said until issues of proper sanitation and availability of clean and safe water were addressed, the country will continue to witness recurrent outbreaks of diarrhoea and other related diseases.
“The high rainfall received this year resulted in flooding of drinking water sources which has resulted in the increase in the number of diarrhoea cases as experinced during the same period of the year last year.
“Communities are strongly urged to continuously use water treatment chemicals such as aqua tabs and the readily available water guard to have safe water in households. Boiling of drinking water for at least 10 minutes in the absence of water treatment chemicals is recommended.
“Local authorities should ensure an uninterrupted supply of clean water to all households in their areas,” she said.
Dr Manangizira said the Ministry of Health would continue carrying out vaccinations against the virus to children aged six weeks, 10 weeks and 14 weeks.
She urged parents with children showing symptoms of rota virus to quickly seek medical attention as the disease could kill a child within a day depending on the severity of the infection.
The symptoms of rota virus include severe watery diarrhoea, often with vomiting, fever, and abdominal pain.
Last year, diarrhoea accounted for about 70 percent of deaths among infants nationwide, and the figure is likely to increase this year if current trends continue.
In 2009, WHO estimated that rotavirus vaccination would help reduce child deaths by about 45 percent.
A devastating cholera outbreak hit the country in 2008, accounting for about 4 000 deaths. Zimbabwe has also been battling sporadic out-breaks of several water-borne diseases, such as typhoid, particularly due to dilapidated waste management infrastructure and reduced running water in urban centres.
