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Obert Chifamba Manicaland Bureau
Mutare City has been declared a malaria zone following a high incidence of the disease, which saw 3 200 positive cases being identified and the resultant 31 deaths during this malaria season, a city official has revealed. The peak of the malaria season is between February and March.

In an interview with The Herald last Friday, Mutare City public relations officer, Mr Spren Mutiwi said communities should implement malaria control strategies such as doing away with all water sources that create breeding places for mosquitoes, undertaking grass cutting programmes in their communities and not always waiting for council. He urged residents to take simple precautionary measures such as closing windows early so that mosquitoes do not get into their homes as dusk or night sets in.

“We want to create a health city and ensure that Mutare reverts to being a non-malaria zone,” said Mr Mutiwi. “As a measure to the emergence of malaria, we have rolled out a joint in-door residual spraying programme together with the Ministry of Health and Child Care.

“Our teams are already in Fern Valley, Florida, Mushamukadzi, Hobhouse, Chikanga and Weymouth. These are the areas that have the highest prevalence of malaria cases.” Mr Mutiwi said as a local authority they encouraged residents to visit all council’s seven clinics without delay if they presented malaria symptoms. The symptoms include vomiting, nausea, headache and diarrhoea.

In October, the Health and Child Care Ministry embarked on an anti-malaria programme in Manicaland with the intention of spraying all the seven districts of the province to control deaths associated with the disease. Mutare is one of the seven districts of Manicaland and used to be a non-malaria area.