Edwin Mwase
Anastasia Lubimbi (19) lies motionless on a reed mat inside her mother’s hut wearing only a torn jersey and pants as her only protection against the w inter cold.
An occasional cough is the only indication that she is still alive.

Her teary mother offers her a cup of drinking water drawn from a nearby well, but Anastasia struggles to take a sip.
“Try to drink, my child, even a single sip,” the mother pleads with her.
Water is the only available “medicine” at their disposal because of the non-availability of health centres nearby.

The young woman suffers from advanced stage sleeping sickness, also known as trypanosome brucei rhodisiense, which causes the inflammation of the brain, with the patient eventually drifting into a coma and death if there is no medical intervention.
Anastasia’s situation is not an isolated case as the area, which is situated in the Zambezi Valley and interconnects three provinces, is infested with tsetse flies, which cause sleeping sickness in humans and nagana in animals.

The area covering the three provinces of Mashonaland West, Midlands and Matabeleland North is at the mercy of the rampaging flies, believed to be found in about 7 percent of the country’s total area.
“We had a herd of 20 cattle, but now that is history,” said Mrs Melody Chekera of Kasvisvi Village in the Siyavukwe area.

The Zambezi breeds the dangerous fly and feeds it to the outlying areas along the valley, leaving both humans and animals at the mercy of the perilous vector.
The worst affected people are under the realm of chiefs Nebiri, Mola, Negande and the outlying regions of Gokwe in the Chitekete area.
The most common tsetse fly species found in Zimbabwe are glossina palpalis and morsitans.
Field officers from the Department of Tsetse Control said the problem with tsetse vectors was that they resisted some pesticides.

“It is estimated that tsetse is found in about 7 percent of Zimbabwe’s total area and trypanosomiais has a negative effect on livestock production in the areas along the Zambezi Valley,” said Mr Riverson Chandamale, a field officer with the Department of Tsetse Control, which falls under the Ministry of Agriculture.
“The methods to control these flies include aerial spraying, sterile insect techniques, insecticide-treated cattle, and odor bait traps and targets.”

Mr Chandamale said deployment of traps and targets was one of the most effective ways of reducing the incidence of trypanosomiais.
However, the shortage of financial resources being experienced by the veterinary department is affecting programmes to eradicate tsetse fly. Communities affected by trypanosomiais are forced to control the flies by themselves.
Chief (Nelson) Nebiri urged more partnerships from Government, corporates and non-governmental organisations to mobilise resources so that the tsetse fly

problem could be dealt with.

“Taking care of the tsetse vector is not the responsibility of the Government alone as all stakeholders must come together in eradicating these flies. There is so much economic activity which can be done if this area is totally cleared off the vector,” he said.
Villagers said the bug has also affected the economic activity of the area.

Village headman Mereki Murwira, of the Nyamakara area in Siyavukwe, said the situation had become dire and the death of domestic animals had made life difficult.
“Animals form a pivotal role of the activities in this area. Donkeys and cattle are at the centre of the transport network. Donkeys, which are an important partner in terms of transporting goods and humans, have been decimated, which puts people in a precarious position when they want to move from place to place,” he said.

Sabhuku Mereki bemoaned the erratic road network which is in bad shape, therefore preventing the movement of vehicles of organisations that wanted to assist them.

The hunting of the tsetse fly and all subsequent Government-sanctioned tsetse hunting operations began before 1940, with the aim of eliminating large wild vertebrate hosts which tsetse depend on for food.
It is widely believed that the tsetse vector was a result of the rinderpest which swept through this part of Africa in 1890. For people and animals in the Zambezi

Valley, life is tough, as they battle to control the fly.