adminHarare is battling an outbreak of yet another water-borne disease, typhoid and so far more than 200 cases having been reported.
With the onset of the rainy season, the risk of outbreak of water-borne diseases is high and unless swift action is taken to contain an outbreak of water-borne diseases, people will die.
The greatest mortality in Africa arises from preventable water-borne diseases, which affect infants and young children more than any other group.
The principal cause of these diseases is largely due to lack of safe drinking water. In some cases the water is contaminated and worse cases are when drinking water is contaminated by raw sewage.
Water-borne diseases are caused by pathogenic micro organisms, which are directly transmitted when contaminated fresh water is consumed.
Contaminated fresh water, used in the preparation of food, can be the source of food-borne diseases through the consumption of the same micro organisms.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), diarrhoeal disease accounts for an estimated 4,1 percent of the total global burden of disease and is responsible for the deaths of 1,8 million people every year.
It is estimated that 88 percent of that burden is attributable to unsafe water supply, sanitation and hygiene, and is mostly concentrated in children in developing countries such as Zimbabwe.
Protozoa, viruses or bacteria, many of which are intestinal parasites can cause water-borne diseases.
Some of the most common water-borne diseases include cholera, diarrhoea, hepatitis A, dysentery and typhoid.
The contamination of drinking water systems with the urine and excretion of infected animals or people spread water-borne diseases.
This is likely to occur where public and private drinking water systems get their water from surface waters such as rain, creeks, rivers and lakes, which can be exposed to contamination.
Runoff from landfills, septic fields, sewer pipes, residential or industrial developments can also sometimes contaminate surface water.
Head of Epidemiology and Disease Control in the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare Dr Portia Manangazira said they had put in place long-term measures to deal with any cases of disease outbreaks throughout the country.
“We have come up with a more pro-active approach so that we are able to counter diseases before they are wide spread.
“We have since set up a National Emergency Operations Centre to help the ministry to co-ordinate response to any cases of outbreaks,” she said.
Dr Manangazira said the operations centre was located at the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare headquarters in Harare.
“This centre will make it easier for our health teams to convey information which guide us on decisions that are to do with responding to reported cases of outbreaks,” she said.
Dr Manangazira said the centres were expected to be operational soon and they had already trained rapid response teams in most provinces.
“We need adequate facilitation so that these teams can also train people at district level so that the awareness on water-borne diseases cascades to the grassroot level,” she said.
Dr Manangazira said they had updated the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) guidelines of 2005 to meet international standards of disease response.
“We have also adapted and adopted 2010 IDSR so that our efforts are in line with the World Health Organisation recommendations,” she said.
Dr Manangazira said the measures were meant to enable the ministry to respond swiftly to distress calls in the event of an outbreak.
“What will however make life much easier for every Zimbabwean is adequate sanitation, but at the moment our main worry is the level of sanitation in the country in general.
“We have been appealing to relevant authorities to make committed efforts to make sure that each and every Zimbabwean has reasonable access to clean water,” she said.
Dr Manangazira said the Government should also give full warning and information on water-borne diseases, especially during the rainy season.
“At the moment the quality of water is poor and therefore we encourage residents to do rain water harvesting because it is clean water.
“Before they do that however, they should clean their roofs so that the water is kept clean,” she said.
Residents are encouraged to practise rainwater harvesting, to boil their water before drinking it and to wash their hands well before handling or eating food among other things.
Open-air worshippers in the city have often been castigated by the Bulawayo City Council as they, in most cases, do not have sanitation facilities thereby increasing the risk of spreading water-borne diseases.
This is so as the absence of adequate sanitation is a breeding ground for water-borne diseases because when it rains, excretion is washed away into other water sources causing contamination.
Dr Liberty Zulu said water-borne diseases should be taken seriously because they could lead to the loss of life.
He said diseases such as cholera and typhoid could claim many lives in a short space of time.
Dr Zulu said the best way people could prevent contracting water-borne diseases was through practising good hygiene and maintaining good health habits.
“Sometimes the difference between two people, one infected and the other uninfected by a water-borne disease could be by a simple thing such as washing their hands after using the toilet, before eating anything and also washing their hands as soon as they get home.
“During the course of the day, you find that you would have greeted a number of people, whom you do not know what they have been exposed to and the least you could do is making washing your
hands with soap a habit.
“It should be the first thing you do when you get home,” he said.
Dr Zulu said members of the public should always seek treatment whenever they suffer from any symptoms related to water-borne diseases because early treatment could save lives.
“Parents should also look out for their children and make sure they are kept clean and that they are not exposed to environments that could make them susceptible to contracting water-borne diseases because they are less likely to survive the consequences of the diseases,” he said.
Dr Zulu said some common symptoms of water-borne diseases included watery diarrhoea, loss of appetite and flu-like symptoms among others.
Water-borne diseases could have a significant impact on the economy.
Online Reporter