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Typhoid outbreak hits Harare

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Harare City has been hit by a typhoid outbreak with more than sixty confirmed cases.

Harare City Health director, Dr Prosper Chonzi says the western suburbs of Budiriro, Glen View and Glen Norah have been hit by a typhoid outbreak with over sixty confirmed cases recorded so far.

Said Dr Chonzi, “We have witnessed a gradual number of typhoid cases in the Western suburbs of Harare, with 61 confirmed cases mainly below the four years age group with main drivers being lack of clean water and sewer bursts.”

Residents attribute the continuous diarrheal outbreaks in Harare to poor service delivery by the opposition-run councils.

“The cholera pandemic started here at Tichagarika and people died and others hospitalised and now typhoid,” a resident of Glen View said.

Another noted, “As the community, we built this toilet as this shopping centre had none, now the city council is failing to connect to the sewer system.”

Since last year, the Government has been conducting typhoid vaccination campaigns targeting children between the ages of 9 months to 15 years with the vaccine now incorporated in routine immunisation to protect children from the diarrheal disease.