THE City of Bulawayo had recorded more than 200 diarrhoea cases and one death as of December last year, the latest council report on disease surveillance has indicated.
According to the report, Bulawayo province rolled out intensified emergency response mechanisms for all pillars to detect, contain, monitor, predict and manage disease outbreaks as they evolve.
“The city remains on high alert because of the following 12 adverse events: Ebola in Congo, Marburg Virus (Rwanda, Tanzania, Equatorial Guinea), multi-country outbreak of mpox (Clades 1 & 2), Wild poliovirus type 1 outbreak in Malawi and Mozambique, Tete province, Cholera outbreak in Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe (all provinces) and South Africa, Typhoid, endemic in neighbouring cities in Zimbabwe, Measles, food poisoning, mumps, chickenpox (VZV), COVID-19 globally, GIT disease iin Bulawayo,” the report said.
“The province remainds vigilant for an mpox outbreak due to a significant increase and spread to non-endemic countries such as Zimbabwe, South Africa and other neighbouring countries.”
Council's health services director Edwin Sibanda reported last month that activities to monitor the health status of the community so as to identify potential problems and prevent the emergence of risk factors were rolled out.
It further indicated that in December last year, four imported malaria cases were reported compared to one case in the previous month.
“Two hundred and ninety-seven diarrhoea cases and one diarrhoea-related death were reported compared to 330 cases from the previous month,” the report said.
Council said there were zero reported cases of dysentery compared to five cases in the previous month.
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“Seventy-six dog bite cases were reported compared to 47 in the previous month (and) 36% (27 dogs) were vaccinated, while 51% (39) had unknown vaccination status and 13% (11) were unvaccinated,” the report said.
“This is a serious public health concern that requires multi-sectoral collaboration to enhance dog control and dog bite prevention strategies as well as the one health concept.
“(Fifteen) snake-bite cases were reported compared to eight cases from the previous month. Sixty acute malnutrition cases were reported compared to 55 cases in the previous month, a serious public health concern.”
Council also reported that 90 influenza cases were reported compared to 116 cases in the previous month.
During the period under review council said only one COVID-19 case was reported compared to three in the previous month and one mumps case was reported which was similar to the previous month.
Other diseases namely measles, cholera, typhoid were not recorded during the period.
“The increase in adverse conditions reported calls for the scaling up of early detection, response (24hrs) and timely containment (14 days) of disease outbreaks, early identification of priority areas for multi-sectoral interventions and targeted response (spatial distribution) and sustained surveillance, ready to respond quickly to any suspected infectious diseases so that any flare-ups, or sporadic cases that may occur following an outbreak, are contained, timeously,” the report said.
Council also called for 100% follow up of all suspected cases of infectious diseases, identifying risk factors associated COVID-19, cholera or GIT to recommend prevention and control measures.
