Hurungwe RDC bans public gatherings . . . 4 treated of cholera in Concession

HURUNGWE Rural District Council has banned all public gatherings involving people from outside the area as a way of containing the cholera outbreak that has so far claimed 49 lives mainly in Harare.

The ban extends to churches and schools as long as congregants and participants would be coming from outside the district.

In an interview, the District Administrator for Hurungwe Ms Makepeace Muzenda — who also chairs the District Civil Protection Unit — said the latest move complemented spirited efforts by the district’s three local authorities to avert any cholera outbreak.

The local authorities include Hurungwe RDC, Karoi Town Council and Chirundu Local Board.

“We have banned all gatherings, especially those that would require NEARLY 80 percent of commercial sex workers tested in Chirundu over the past two months have sexually transmitted infections.

The infections are in various forms and stages.

This comes amid various interventions by non-governmental organisations and the National Aids Council to increase awareness among this key STI driver population.

Tests conducted from June 1 to August 31 showed that out of 167 sex workers, 129 of them had STIs including chlamydia, gonorrhoea, HIV and Aids and syphilis.

This is despite wide distribution FOUR people were successfully treated and discharged after having tested positive for cholera in Concession, with 19 other suspected cholera cases having been proved to be negative, Mashonaland Central Provincial Epidemiology and Disease Control Officer, Dr Tsistsi Siwela has said.

people from outside the district to travel to our region,” said Ms Muzenda.

“These include schools or church gatherings.

“We are very happy as a district that we have successfully removed all vendors from undesignated points on the

In an interview last week, Dr Siwela said the four patients were treated at Concession District Hospital and discharged, while their conducts were traced and decontaminated.

“Four cholera cases were confirmed in Concession, with health authorities successfully treating and discharging the patients,” she said.

“The roots of the four cases were traced to Harare through the travel

streets in all the areas under our three local authorities.

“No single case of cholera has been reported in our district and this latest measure seeks to strengthen the current state of affairs. Sanity is prevailing in Karoi, Chirundu and Magunje.

“The vendors are now operating at and consuming of contaminated fruits from Harare.

“Nineteen other suspected cholera cases were also attended to and they proved to be negative.”

Dr Siwela said they were facing resource constraints, particularly fuel for vehicles used in tracing and decontaminating those who would have come into contact with cholera patients.

the designated vending sites.”

The ban has affected the Hurungwe District Schools Merit Awards Ceremony — an annual district megaevent hosted by the Better Schools Programme Zimbabwe.

The ceremony has been suspended indefinitely.

travellers in the border town.

This comes amid reports that truck drivers pick and drop sex workers in centres and towns along their NorthSouth corridor voyage.

Some of them reportedly offer more for unprotected sex.

A sex worker at the centre, said they risk being infected after they are offered a significantly higher charge for unprotected intercourse.

Of major concern was the incident of repeat infection.

One of the sex workers interviewed said she had attended to around 300 clients since she started the trade in 2 000.

“I have been in the trade for the past 18 years and in that period I have been with men enough to fill three buses.

“It was not by choice, but only that I wanted to look after my children after the left and never returned,” she said.