Amanda Ncube, Sunday News Reporter
BULAWAYO handled 73 malaria cases in the just ended year which were all imported into the city from various parts of the country reaffirming the country’s second largest city as a non-malaria transmission zone.
According to the senior public relations officer Mrs Nesisa Mpofu, Bulawayo was a non-malaria transmission zone although it received a number of malaria cases from surrounding districts and other parts of the country.
“Whenever the council receives malaria cases thorough investigations are done so as to classify the cases in terms of origin.
And all our cases are either people who would have visited a malaria prone area and got infected before coming back into the city or people who come to the city already infected to seek treatment,” she said.
Mrs Mpofu said it should be noted that although the city was infested with mosquitoes, they were not known for malaria transmission.
“Council continues to inform the public on malaria transmission and necessary prevention and treatment measures. Our clinics are adequately stocked with anti-malarial drugs. Nurses in municipal clinics are trained in malaria diagnosis and case management. Our emergency preparedness and response team remains on high alert for any disease outbreaks,” she said.
Mrs Mpofu also encouraged residents to clear their vicinity of disused containers and stagnant pools of water so as to minimise breeding of mosquitoes, especially during the rainy season.
In 2016 there was a major decline of people who succumbed to malaria countrywide from 462 in 2015 to 231.
According to the Ministry of Health and Child Care’s Epidemic Prone Diseases, Deaths and Public Health Events report for the week ending 31 December 2016 six people died from malaria on that week alone while 2 802 cases were recorded.
“Of these 429 (15,3 percent) and one death were under the age of five. The deaths were reported in Manicaland Province where two districts Chimanimani and Mutare recorded one death each,” read the report.
In Masvingo two deaths were recorded while Parirenyatwa Groups of Hospitals in Harare recorded two.