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Kuwadzana MP, Hon. Chamisa visits typhoid affected areas
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
February 02, 2012

The City of Harare's health department has said 50 percent of borehole water in the city is contaminated and people should ensure they treat the water before consumption. This was revealed the Harare Health Services Director, Dr Prosper Chonzi during a visit to Kuwadzana 4 clinic by Hon. Nelson Chamisa, the MP for the area and Minister for ICT.

Dr Prosper Chonzi said the problem of typhoid is emanating from years of neglect of important infrastructure that facilitates the provision of basic services such as water reticulation, sanitation and refuse management, making it difficult to provide quality health services.

He went on to say typhoid is spread through consumption of contaminated food and water, so where there is movement of people it becomes difficult to contain the disease.

In his remarks, Hon Chamisa said: "Having an outbreak of typhoid is evidence of failure. We might deny it but then it is a testimony of collapse. We need to correct this. It is not right." "It takes a few days for typhoid infection to start showing symptoms and it's difficult for us to say we are on top of the situation until after two incubation cycles," he said.

Hon. Chamisa said issues that need to be addressed as a matter of urgency included the issue of clean water supplies, sanitation, refuse management, general and personal hygiene.

Given that the city health department had raised the issue of vendors whose market stalls are not in designated areas with no ablution facilities, it would be difficult to stop the vending but that there was need to strike a balance between what action would be taken and the need for survival, according to Hon. Chamisa.

"It is a delicate balance between a question of survival and a question of the danger of the disease so we have to strike the balance and I am sure that education will induce the difference. Once we educate the people and raise awareness, I have no doubt people will appreciate the consequences and risks of the kind of living we have been sustaining so far," he said, adding that it is a question of revising our ways of living, making sure that at least our residents are educated and awareness is raised in terms of hygiene issues.

Hon. Chamisa also said, "This is a manifestation of collapse at the centre of delivery of services. We want to make sure we upscale the response of government, the response of city council to deal with the issues we are facing,"

At least 37 suspected cases of typhoid and 14 diarrhoeal diseases had been reported by midday today at Kuwadzana clinic.

Dr Chonzi said he was getting worried about the number of diarrhoeal issues being reported and added that they were taking these issues seriously. "Our major problem is resources. Our team has few people and we fear that fatigue might start to creep in at this stage. We are doing all we can and we have started doing door to door services to ensure people have information and distribute aqua tablets to treat their water, be it borehole or City of Harare water," said Dr Chonzi.

"We are referring serious cases to Beatrice Infectious Diseases Hospital and so far we have 71 patients in hospital," he said.

There has been no typhoid-related deaths recorded yet. About 1000 typhoid cases have been reported at Kuwadzana 4 clinic in a week and about 800 cases in Dzivarasekwa.

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