Bulawayo City Council has placed the city on high alert for a range of infectious diseases and public health emergencies, as authorities move to strengthen surveillance and response systems.
According to the latest council minutes, the local authority has activated enhanced emergency mechanisms to detect, contain and manage emerging health threats.
“The city remains on high alert for the following 12 adverse events: Ebola, Marburg virus, Mpox (Clades 1 and 2) reported in Mozambique and South Africa, wild poliovirus type 1, cholera, typhoid, measles, food poisoning, mumps, chickenpox, COVID-19, gastrointestinal diseases, and rabies-linked dog bites,” the minutes read.
Health statistics from August show mixed trends across diseases. Malaria cases dropped to zero, compared with two recorded in July, while diarrhoea cases fell from 307 to 190 over the same period. One dysentery case and two cases of acute flaccid paralysis were also reported. Dog bites declined from 71 in July to 62 in August.
However, council noted six maternal deaths during the month.
In addition, one suspected Mpox case and two measles cases were recorded in August, compared with none in July.
Mpox remains a growing concern in the region. As of September, Zambia, Kenya and Malawi had reported new cases, with smaller numbers in South Africa and Mozambique.
Surges have also occurred in Kenya, Zambia and Tanzania, with fresh outbreaks detected in Malawi and Ethiopia.
The African Union’s Public Health Emergency of Continental Security (PHECS) has maintained the emergency status for Mpox across the continent, despite the World Health Organization’s decision to downgrade the global threat level, citing the risk of new outbreaks.
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