Fortunate Gora Correspondent
AT  least 2 136 children have so far been admitted in hospital due to burns in Mashonaland West Province, with the majority of cases being linked to child abuse and general negligence by parents.

According to the statistics released by the Ministry of Health and Child Care, Chegutu District has the highest number of affected children at 475, followed by Zvimba with 411 cases and Hurungwe District with 400 cases so far this year.

Mashonaland West Ministry of Health and Child Care programmes officer Mr George Kambondo said it was worrisome that the province has consistently recorded over 4 000 cases of children that have been burnt every year.

“In 2015, we had 5 425 cases, in 2016 there were 4 862 cases and last year we had 4 609 cases,” he said.

“This is very disturbing because some of the scenarios we suspect are a result of child abuse, which should not be tolerated.”

He said most of the cases were in children who were staying with their stepmothers.

There were concerns that in some cases the victims were only taken for treatment several days after the accident.

This, he said, translates to ill-treatment of children.

However, Mr Kambondo said in some instances children got burnt due to negligence by some parents.

He urged all the parents and guardians to exercise caution when boiling water, preparing meals, lighting candles and any action that may expose their children to such dangers.

“This winter season parents need to be very careful with their children. There are reports of children who were accidentally burnt by hot water, porridge by their real parents,” he said.

 

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