The Sunday Mail
Emmanuel Kafe
As sure as the sun will rise, folks in Mbare know that every year brings with it either typhoid or cholera especially during the rainy season.
Barely eight years after a cholera outbreak wreaked havoc in Zimbabwe, claiming over 4 000 lives with Harare and one of its suburb Mbare being the epicentre, fresh typhoid cases are causing sleepless nights in the populous area.
The cases are being blamed on overcrowding and poor service delivery by the Harare City Council.
Mbare has been hardest hit by the typhoid outbreak within a space of two weeks with 35 cases having being detected.
No deaths have been recorded yet.
The City of Harare health department blames the outbreak on overpopulation in the hostels and unprotected boreholes that are exposed to sewer.
A visit to the capital’s oldest suburb revealed why the residents are bearing the brunt of the medieval disease.
Matapi and Matererini hostels are typical examples of a conducive environment under which typhoid thrives.
With their dilapidated sewer systems that are teeming with human excreta, the area is a perfect breeding ground for salmonella typhi bacteria, which causes typhoid.
Like any other busy suburb, the place is quite vibrant, with lots of movement and activity.
Oblivious of the dangers, children played hide-and-seek near a heap of garbage at the hostels. There was a strong stench emanating from the rotting food and diapers. A foul smell pervaded the whole compound but it did not seem to bother the inhabitants. The passage at Matapi blocks was dark even though it was just after mid-day. But nothing compared to the horror inside the blocks of flats which were never meant for families in the first place. These flats were constructed for bachelors.
Down the dirty passage, this writer stumbled on a greenish liquid on the floor, which was flowing from a dilapidated toilet.
The putrid smell was pervasive and big flies made a happy sound as they buzzed in and out of the toilet. The sight was not for the faint-hearted.
Now, with fresh typhoid outbreaks reported in Matapi flats from the past weeks, residents fear the disease could blow out of control if it is not contained before the onset of the rainy season.
Typhoid is a bacterial disease transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated by an infected person.
Shaking hands is widely believed to be one of the ways it can be transmitted.
Residents have now resorted to nearby bushes along the Mukuvisi River to relieve themselves as toilets squirm with worms.
There has been no running water for ages and no one is responsible for cleaning the toilets.
“Some of us cannot use those toilets, especially the children. We would rather use the bush,” said a woman who was doing laundry just outside the building. “The way we are living here is risky, especially for our children.”
There is just one borehole for about six blocks of flats and it is located near a heap of garbage which residents say might have ignited the typhoid cases.
Memory Zeka, a resident in the area, said, “This outbreak will not be easy to contain as long as there is sewer everywhere. The outbreak of typhoid has exposed just how critical it is for the local authority to address the plight of Mbare flats dwellers.”
The city council provisionally singled out a borehole in the area as the source of the problem.
The borehole is not properly secured, a factor which might have caused runoff water and sewer to seep through into the borehole.
“The cases are coming mostly from Matapi and are being treated at Beatrice Infectious Diseases hospital,” said Harare City Council director of health services, Dr Prosper Chonzi.
Dr Chonzi said it was encouraging that people are heeding calls for good personal hygiene and discouraged people from buying fruits and food from street vendors where quality and safety of food is not guaranteed.
Meanwhile, City of Harare says it is finalising details with a local bank to bankroll the construction of new flats in Mbare as the old ones face demolition.
Spokesman for City of Harare, Mr Michael Chideme, said the open space close to the existing flats will be used to construct new buildings set to accommodate people from the demolished flats.
“We have identified the land to construct the new flats and it’s the space close to the existing flats. What we are waiting for is the finalisation of our agreement with a local bank then once that is done, we will then start construction.
“Let it be known, however, that no one will be moved out of their place before the completion of the new flats. The arrangement is that, we will complete the construction first, then we move people later,” said Chideme.
Typhoid symptoms are fever, loss of appetite, skin rash, abdominal pain, headache, generalised body pains and diarrhoea or constipation, explained Dr Chonzi. Typhoid, an infectious bacterial fever, can be treated with antibiotics, but it still kills more than 220 000 people worldwide each year, according to the World Health Organisation.
