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Thandeka Moyo, Health Reporter
A GROWING number of people are resorting to suicide due to social pressures in Bulawayo amid reports that three quarters of people who eat or drink poisonous stuff die as a result of it.
This comes at a time when police have also bemoaned the high rate of suicide cases in the city which is also affecting juveniles.
Mpilo Central Hospital clinical director Dr Solwayo Ngwenya said that the most used toxin in Bulawayo was rat poison.
He added that the growing trend of people ingesting poison was mostly prevalent among middle aged men over the past six months.
According to Dr Ngwenya, depression was the cause of most cases that have been recorded at the institution.
“We are seeing a worrying trend where people are ingesting organophosphate poison meant to kill rats due to social pressures. In the past six months we have had an upsurge of those cases and unfortunately 75 percent do not make it as they die upon admission,” said Dr Ngwenya.
He called on communities to be on the lookout for depression or other psychiatric issues that trigger suicide.
“People normally consider suicide when undergoing social pressures, when they feel like failures or even when their families break down. It is therefore important for families to be on the lookout for suicidal tendencies as suicide can be prevented,” Dr Ngwenya said.
He encouraged families and communities to provide counselling services to affected members and ensure the depressed are taken to health institutions for help.
“We should never ridicule anyone suffering from depression or any mental issue as this may often lead to deaths,” said Dr Ngwenya.
A local psychiatrist Miss Jacqueline Nkomo said depression was a major cause of suicide the world over though most Africans do not take it seriously.
“Most of our suicide cases are dominated by men because they believe a macho man should bottle things in even if social pressures are affecting them. People should learn to open up and take depression signs seriously so that we avoid such tragedies,” said Miss Nkomo.
— @thamamoe.
Online Reporter