Malaria scare in Hwange

Victoria Falls (New Ziana) -There has been a notable increase in cases of malaria cases in Hwange district, Matabeleland North province, a senior medical officer has said.

The province recorded above alert threshold cases of malaria in the first two weeks of April this year, surpassing the total number of about 80 cases recorded in March.

A health alert threshold refers to the number of cases reported for a particular disease per week or per day in a given area.

Hwange district medical officer Dr Fungayi Musinami told journalists during a tour of a Covid-19 quarantine centre at Mosi-oa-Tunya school and isolation centres in Mkhosana high density suburb.

He said the district had since activated surveillance systems after it recorded a worrying surge in malaria cases last month.

Dr Musinami said 12 clinics had recorded above alert threshold cases of malaria, prompting the district to go out in full force to monitor the situation.

“We are seeing a gradual increase of malaria cases in some of our clinics that have gone above the alert threshold for malaria. Twelve clinics have exceeded alert threshold so our teams have gone there to investigate,” she said, adding at least 131 people had succumbed to malaria countrywide.

She said authorities were considering repeating indoor and outdoor residual spraying which is usually done between November and January countrywide.

“What we have done is to send out teams to investigate and we are starting to implement interventions for malaria control.

“We are planning with some of our partners that we may need to repeat indoor spraying, scale up testing and treatment for malaria as well as giving education to the communities on the disease,” Dr Musinami said.

New Ziana