DIARRHOEA ALERT
Health Ministry worries as the country cases rise
About 300 cases of diarrhoea have been reported across the country since August 14th, causing a concern that the infection is spreading. The Ministry of Health’s spokesperson Dr Christopher Nyanga has thus warned the public to remain vigilant as cases continue to increase.
“We continue to experience high diarrhoea with dehydration cases in most places across the country, and Chobe district had the highest number of cases for the past two weeks,” explains Nyanga.
He explains that as of August 14th three lives were lost. He reiterates that the country experiences more diarrhoeal cases more than it is expected for this season, and so people should be vigilant at all times.
“The Ministry encourages Batswana to remain vigilant and visit the nearest health facility when they experience or suspect that they or their children may have been infected. Our facilities are on standby to assist,” Dr Nyanga says.
Other districts like Greater Gaborone, Greater Francistown, Tutume, Ngami and Ghanzi DHMTs have also reported high numbers, with the most affected being children below the age of five, Dr Nyanga adds.
The Ministry is offering the necessary support to the affected areas, including capacitating health care workers on best preventative and curative measures.
Members of the public are further advised to boil drinking water for children, always wash hands with clean water and soap especially after using toilets and to generally maintain high standards of hygiene.
A local clinic health worker who asked to remain anonymous as she is not authorised to speak for her facility added that when Covid-19 hit, diarrhoeal cases went down significantly because people were used to washing hands frequently. She thus advises that people use the same rigour in keeping clean so that cases go down.
In other parts of the country people blame the unclean water that they are supplied with for contributing to the problem.
A Maun resident, Goitseone Setlhodi says that in her neighbourhood most people are affected, and her observation is that disadvantaged members of society suffer the most.
“Those who afford filtered water for drinking are safe from this outbreak,” she said.