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Lisa Shirichena Herald Reporter
The Ministry of Health and Child Care has stepped in to avert a potentially disastrous situation in Karoi Town by providing mosquito nets and spraying a section of the area where four people succumbed to malaria recently.

Health researchers are puzzled by an outbreak of malaria in a small section of the town and frequent visits have been witnessed as they try to figure out the problem.

According to the ministry’s latest disease surveillance report, Karoi Town has been painted a “red zone” and systems have been put on high alert.

In an interview yesterday, national programme manager for malaria in the ministry, Dr Joseph Mberi, said they had made some interventions to alleviate the situation.

“We managed to spray the affected area, we encouraged people to clear the canals in their fields and we provided the whole area with mosquito nets. The outbreak was caused by the streams which people pass by when visiting their fields,” he said.

People are, however, still querying the explanation as this is not the only area where residents practise urban cultivation that leaves water accumulating in their fields.

Panic-stricken residents are now overwhelming a local clinic that is failing to cope with demand.

The interventions by the Ministry of Health and Child Care follows the death of four people of malaria and about 1 200 cases of people who were treated of the disease in Karoi Town following an outbreak that is yet to be completely contained.