CommuTalk Reporter
GWERU – The Ministry of Health and Child Care will next week conduct a bilharzia (schistosomiasis) and worms (soil transmitted helminthiasis) mass drug administration campaign in Chiwundura.
Health personnel at Chinamasa, Masvori, Gunde, Chiwundura and Kabanga Clinics, which are in wards 10, 11, 12 and 13, where the MDA will be held were already on the ground concientising the public.
Speaking during a district stakeholder engagement meeting on bilharzia and deworming campaign implementation, Gweru District Health Services Administrator Ethel Chirunga said the campaign would run from October 14 to 21 in the four wards.
Health officials, she said, were also targeting religious groups which bar members from seeking medical attention as all children under 15 are supposed to be administered.
“Although we do not force, we are going to educate them on the benefits of letting children get the pills.
“We are also working with traditional leaders and councilors so that they encourage villagers to let children participate,” she said.
“We are going to work with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education so that all schools and early child development centres in the area are sensitised,” she added.
Stating that children to be covered are expected to be well fed, Chirunga said they are currently liaising with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education and the department of social welfare to establish whether the current feeding programme is covering schools in the area.
Gweru district environmental health officer Constance Gumbo also said the four Chiwundura wards were chosen after it was established that they have the highest prevalence rate in the district.
“These wards have more cases and this has become a health concern which needs to be prevented and controlled,” she said.
Besides the exercise, Gumbo said there will also be need to improve access to clean water and sanitation. Access to tolets and avoidance of unprotected water sources were also noted as key areas of improvement towards preventing recurrence of soil transmitted helminthiasis.
If not controlled both bilharzia and worms may lead to malnutrition, growth retardation and cognitive impairment.
Bilharzia is a vector-borne parasitic disease caused by trematode flatworms of the genus Schistosoma.
Freshwater snails act as the vector, releasing larval forms of the parasite into water. These larvae subsequently penetrate the skin of people who are in that water.
Soil transmitted helminthiasis is a group of diseases caused by parasitic worms transmitted through contaminated soil.
According to the MDA impact assessment done in 2018, Zimbabwe has had a 78,3 percent prevalence reduction of bilharzia.
This is down from a national prevalence of 23 percent in 2010 to 5 percent in 2018.
The World Health Organisation seeks to control and eliminate bilharzia and intestinal worms by 2030 in Africa.
