Situation Update No. 1 Ref.no.: EH-20100310-25259-ZWE
Situation Update No. 1 On 2010-03-11 at 17:34:03 [UTC] Event: Epidemic Hazard Location: Zimbabwe Mashonaland East Mabvuku Harare Number of Deads: 5 person(s) Number of Infected: 30 person(s) Situation: Typhoid fever has killed five people in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, and 30 others were being treated for the bacterial disease, the city's health director, Stanley Mungofa, told a media briefing on 9 March 2010. The epicentre of the outbreak is the high-density suburb of Mabvuku. In the past two years the township has rarely experienced a reliable supply of water, forcing residents to dig shallow wells, which are easily polluted by ablutions and waste. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), "Typhoid fever is a bacterial disease, caused by Salmonella typhi. It is transmitted through the ingestion of food or drink contaminated by the faeces or urine of infected people." Symptoms include high fever, headaches, constipation or diarrhoea, rose-coloured spots on the chest, and an enlarged spleen and liver, usually occurring from one to three weeks after exposure, and may be mild or severe. The case fatality rate can be about 10 percent, but antibiotics can reduce this to below one percent. According to the Canadian Medical Association Journal, complications occur in 10 to 15 percent of cases, the most serious of which are "gastrointestinal bleeding, perforation and typhoid encephalopathy". The five deaths in Harare were originally attributed to malaria, but subsequent medical investigation determined the cause to be typhoid. Water bowsers have been deployed in Mabvuku and "health promoters are moving door to door, emphasizing sanitation and hygiene, and establishing if there are new cases of typhoid," Mungofa said. |