Dr. Henry Madzorera, the Minister of Health and Child Welfare on Tuesday toured areas in Harare that have been affected by the typhoid outbreak.
Briefing the minister during the tour of the affected high density areas, the Deputy Mayor of Harare, Emmanuel Chiroto assured him that the situation
would be brought under control in the next few weeks.

Councillor Chiroto said Harare City Council was working flat out with several organisations such as WHO, UNICEF, Red Cross, CDC, ICRC, MSF, National Health Care Trust of Zimbabwe and government with the main focus being to intensify water provision in the high density areas.

These organisations have since put in place a command centre that procures medicine, has alert systems, laboratories and are able to immediately investigate any cases of reported outbreaks.

The Deputy Mayor said the pandemic could have been worse had Minister of Finance, Hon. Tendai Biti not loaned Harare City Council $250 million in 2010 which saw the city replacing most of its dilapidated water reticulation pipes.

However, this was not enough as the city,which was built for only 250 000 people, continues to expand. The Harare City Council is also involved in supplying water to the greater Harare area, which include Chitungwiza, Norton, Ruwa and Epworth.

Kuwadzana Clinic was busy this afternoon with patients coming in for observation and treatment in case they were diagnosed as having typhoid. The minister was informed by medical staff at the clinic that there were only eight cases since last week that had been referred to the Beatrice Infectious Diseases Hospital for treatment while the rest of the patience were treated and discharged.

The City Council has over the last year managed to collect and clean up the garbage in all high density suburb. Uncollected gabbage and erratic water supply have been linked to the typhoid outbreak. The exercise is on-going. Addressing a press conference earlier at Kaguvi Building, Minister Madzorera said no deaths had been recorded since the outbreak was reported in October 2011.

Dr Madzorera said, “The outbreak was first reported in mid October and again in an area where there had been no water supplies for two weeks, forcing residents to resort to unsafe water from shallow wells. This was in Dzivarasekwa. To date, no deaths and no serious complications have been reported.

“By the end of 2011, more than 1 500 cases had been witnessed and treated, and for 2012 up to the week ending January 22, the Ministry has received reports of a cumulative 350 suspected and 16 confirmed cases. An average 30 to 50 cases are reported on a daily basis,” said Dr Madzorera.

He urged residents to always boil their drinking water even if it was tap water or use aqua tablets to be on the safe side. “All cities are still recovering from a major economic downturn due to the mishandling of the economy by the previous government. “These cities are still to conform their
water treatment,” according Minister Madzorera.

He said his ministry is in the process of constituting the “National Emergency Operations Centre” to better co-ordinate the response to this and future outbreaks. The centre will be housed at Kaguvi Building.

“Each of us has a role to play and a part to contribute in preventing typhoid and other diarrhoeal diseases. Together, we will improve our conditions of living,” he said.

During the tour, the minister was accompanied by Deputy Mayor Chiroto, the councillor for Ward 37, Urayayi Mangwiro and several senior officials
from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare and the city council.

Typhoid is a disease  contracted by eating food and drinking water contaminated with typhoid bacteria.Symptoms of the disease include high fever, profuse sweating, diarrhoea, constipation as well as stomach and body pains.