adminTinomuda Chakanyuka, Senior Reporter
THE Ministry of Health and Child Care has started carrying out a case control study to establish the nature and cause of a mysterious disease that hit parts of Hwange District last month.
Matabeleland North provincial medical director Dr Nyasha Masuka told Sunday News last week that results of the study will be out by end of July. Dr Masuka said the case control study will involve comparing 43 patients who were affected by the disease with 86 other villagers from the same area who were not affected.
“The idea is to look back retrospectively to see what these people who got the illness were exposed to which those who didn’t the illness may not have been exposed to. We will finish the study by end of July and that’s when we will release the results as well,” he said.
At least 43 people from 11 villages in Hwange District were between April and May this year admitted to Lukosi Hospital after complaining of back aches, joint pains and high temperatures. The patients, according to authorities, showed malaria symptoms but none of them tested positive for the disease, leaving doctors puzzled. No deaths were reported in the area as a result of the mysterious disease.
Dr Masuka said all the patients who were admitted for an average of four days and were treated and discharged have since recovered. He said at the time the cases were reported, health workers failed to conduct blood culture and other blood tests as the patients could not afford to pay for the tests.
“Most patients were admitted for three to four days. We only managed to test for malaria and all cases were negative. Blood culture and other blood tests could have helped but all patients could not afford further tests,” he said.
A report by the Ministry of Health and Child Care on the disease cases dismissed reports that likened the disease to ebola.
The report showed that men constituted the biggest number of affected patients (74 percent) while Change village had the most cases (21 percent).
According to the report the youngest affected patient was eight years old and the oldest 61. The report recommended that health workers in the district be trained on infectious disease report systems to improve response to epidemic prone diseases.
Also recommended in the report is for more resources to be allocated to the district to improve laboratory resources and enable health workers to carry out necessary investigations.
Villagers in Hwange told Sunday News that cases of the mysterious disease were reported at a time when some villagers were also losing their livestock to yet another inexplicable disease. According to the villagers, their cattle would just fall and die instantly without having shown any signs of illness prior.
Hwange District veterinary officer Dr Lovemore Dube however, said his office had not received any reports of cattle mysteriously dying. He was quick to point out that cattle were prone to attacks from different diseases due to lots of rain which the country received in the summer season.
@irielyan
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter