Current diarrhea outbreak is the highest
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Tuesday September 18, 2018 14:31
Addressing the media at Princess Marina Hospital yesterday, Madigele explained that six health districts out of the 27 were formally experiencing a diarrhea outbreak in the under five years population. Those include Mahalapye (274), Selibe Phikwe (202), Bobirwa (190), Boteti (184), Gaborone (105) and Francistown (39) cases. He also pointed out that other districts reached alert level. Those districts include Palapye, Ngami, Kgatleng, Kweneng East, Serowe and Okavango.
“Nationally there has been five deaths for week 36 where the deaths were recorded as follows; Mahalapye (two), Serowe (one), Ngami (one) and Boteti (one). Investigations are still ongoing regarding the cause of the outbreak,” he said.
He pointed out that the ministry established a response coordinating structure which comprises of National Rapid response team for offering direct support to the districts on all the aspects of outbreak management, National Emergency Operations center that meets daily at the MoH to monitor all aspects of the situation (morbidity and mortality data, stock supplies, challenges), collects information from the NRRT and case management team that ensures that those with diarrhea were treated correctly.
He noted that diarrhea was caused by various factors including microorganism and may cause acute life threatening illness. He advised the public to promptly report to the nearest health facility if they experience any symptoms of diarrhea, strictly observe personal hygiene measures such as hand washing with soap after visiting the toilet, before and after handling food and before and after feeding children, make sure that food is thoroughly cooked, wash fruits and vegetables with clean water before eating them, dispose of human excreta properly including children’s faeces and drink safe or treated water.
Meanwhile, the minister dismissed claims that the outbreak was coursed by WUC water supply. He said even though most of the tests results from the faeces samples taken from some of the patients proved that the outbreak was caused by water, their tests shows that WUC water was safe for consumption.