Bulawayo recorded an increase in malaria, malnutrition and diarrhoea cases in May compared to the previous month, a council report shows.
Diarrhoea is becoming endemic in the country’s second city.
“There was an increase in malaria positive cases (20), diarrhoea cases (158) and malnutrition cases (44) reported in the month of May 2022 compared to 2 malaria positive cases, 97 diarrhoea and 16 malnutrition cases reported in the previous month April 2022,” a council report of the health, housing and education committee reads in part.
The report says city fathers were worried over the evolving diarrhoea outbreak.
“The increase in the number of adverse events reported during the month was a serious public health concern that called for the scaling up of Emergency Response Mechanisms (ERMs) by all pillars of the Epidemic Preparedness and Response team (EPR).”
A diarrhoea outbreak was reported in Pumula suburb recently, but there were no casualties.
A similar outbreak was also reported in Tshabalala Extension affecting about 157 people in December last year.
The worst outbreak was reported in 2020 when 13 people lost their lives to the water borne disease.
Perennial water shortages are blamed on the increase in diarrhoea cases as communities resort to alternative and unsafe water sources.
Ageing water and sewer reticulation infrastructure is piling more woes as seen in incessant pipe bursts, resulting in contamination of potable water and sickening residents.
