HomeOld_PostsCombating Typhoid: Hygiene is important

Combating Typhoid: Hygiene is important

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ZIMBABWE has, in the past few months, been affected by the waterborne disease typhoid with statistics in the Ministry of Health and Child Care’s weekly report on Epidemic-Prone Diseases, Deaths and Public Health Events for the week ending December 5 2016 showing waterborne diseases are a cause for concern.
According to the weekly report, since last year, 435 people died from common diarrhoea, 84 from dysentery, nine from typhoid, while cholera claimed one person.
However, the outbreak of typhoid has resulted in a nasty blame game with Government pointing fingers at the Harare City Council which in turn accuses residents of being unhygienic and irresponsible.
Harare City health director, Dr Prosper Chonzi was quoted in a local daily as saying: “Issues of personal hygiene should be emphasised and people should practise things like boiling water before drinking and washing their hands after using the toilet or before consuming food.”
Dr Chonzi’s sentiments come in the wake of increased activity in a condemned informal market that has sandwiched business in the city centre and surrounding areas.
Oblivious of the typhoid concerns and its effects, people, especially in high density areas, continue to buy meat from vendors in fly-infested areas.
They also continue to buy maize or food cooked in uncertified, unsafe and unclean sources without even thinking twice.
The culture of washing hands with clean water and soap before eating or even after using the toilet is of late largely ignored by the public.
Yet the threat posed by typhoid continues unabated and unattended to.
According to a health site WebMD, typhoid fever is an acute illness associated with fever caused by the salmonella typhi bacteria.
It can also be caused by salmonella paratyphi, a related bacterium that usually causes a less severe illness.
The bacteria are deposited in water or food by a human carrier and are then spread to other people in the area.
Worldwide, typhoid fever affects more than 21 million people annually, with about 200 000 people dying from the disease.
Typhoid fever is contracted by drinking or eating the bacteria in contaminated water or food.
People with acute illness can contaminate the surrounding water supply through stool, which contains a high concentration of the bacteria.
Contamination of the water supply can, in turn, taint the food supply.
The bacteria can survive for weeks in water or dried sewage.
About three-to-five percent of people become carriers of the bacteria after the acute illness.
Others suffer a very mild illness that goes unrecognised.
These people may become long-term carriers of the bacteria, even though they have no symptoms and be the source of new outbreaks of typhoid fever for many years.
After the ingestion of contaminated food or water, the salmonella bacteria invade the small intestine and enter the bloodstream temporarily.
The bacteria are carried by white blood cells in the liver, spleen and bone marrow, where they multiply and re-enter the bloodstream.
People at this point develop symptoms, including fever.
Bacteria invade the gallbladder, biliary system and the lymphatic tissue of the bowel.
Here, they multiply in high numbers.
The bacteria pass into the intestinal tract and can be identified in stool samples.
If a test result is not clear, blood samples will be taken to make a diagnosis.
The incubation period is usually one to two weeks and the duration of the illness is about three-to-four weeks.
Symptoms of typhoid
l Poor appetite
l Headaches
l Generalised aches and pains
l Fever
l Lethargy and
l Diarrhoea
Chest congestion develops in many people while abdominal pain and discomfort are common.
The fever becomes constant.
Improvement occurs in the third and fourth week in those without complications. About 10 percent of people have re-current symptoms after feeling better for one-to-two weeks.
Relapses are actually more common in individuals treated with antibiotics.
Typhoid fever is usually treated with antibiotics which kill the salmonella bacteria.
With appropriate antibiotic therapy, there is usually improvement within one-to-two days and recovery within seven-to-10 days.
Those who become chronically ill (about three-to-five percent of those infected), can be treated with prolonged antibiotics.
Often, removal of the gallbladder, the site of chronic infection, will provide a cure.
With the disease continuing to pose a serious threat to the majority, it remains to be seen if the authorities will stop the blame game and eradicate the disease before it claims many lives.
With typhoid having already claimed two lives in Mbare last month, the Harare City Council has banned illegal vending in the Harare Metropolitan area.
However, perhaps council must also go beyond vendors by addressing other pertinent issues like water and sewer reticulation as well as waste management.
Only then can Harare make great strides in combating typhoid.
A clean environment is imperative. – Source – WebMD

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