MPILO Central Hospital has isolated patients suffering from
diarrhoea admitted to the facility to prevent the disease from spreading to
other patients with different ailments.
Twelve people have died since the outbreak of typhoid and
dysentery in Bulawayo last month. More than 1 500 people have been infected by
the diseases in Luveve and surrounding suburbs with more than 130 having
recovered by Monday last week.
Bulawayo City Council (BCC) says it is yet to establish the
source of the disease outbreak but residents blame council water.
Government says water shedding and vandalism of sewerage
infrastructure could have caused the gastrointestinal disease outbreak. Acting
Mpilo Central Hospital clinical director Dr Xolani Ndlovu said:
“That (isolating patients) is the procedure that is
followed with such outbreaks so that the disease does not spread to other
patients who are already admitted to the hospital with other ailments.
“I don’t have the details as to how many patients have been
separated at the moment but what I know is that we had admitted more than 100
people. “The number includes those who have been discharged, died or still
under treatment.”
The disease is said to have largely affected children so
the paediatric department had most of the isolated patients.
The local authority says while it is still investigating
the source of the disease outbreak, residents should observe high hygienic
levels to prevent further spread of the disease.
To contain the spread of the infection, BCC has exempted
Luveve and surrounding suburbs from the 144-hour weekly water shedding exercise
so that residents can effectively deal with the diarrhoeal diseases. The
council is providing free treatment for patients with diarrhoeal symptoms after
observing that some of them were delaying seeking treatment due to lack of
funds.
BCC is also conducting door to door campaigns to identify
ailing residents who were also failing to visit health centres and had visited
more than 200 homes by Monday last week. Government has set up a technical team
to investigate the disease outbreak.
Environmental Management Agency (EMA) is leading the
Government’s technical team.
Government deployed army doctors to complement the city’s
health department in fighting the spread of the disease and released $7,4 million
for the drilling of 10 boreholes in the city to improve water supplies.
Chronicle
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