TWENTY-THREE wards in Nyanga, Manicaland province, have been targeted for the ongoing nationwide bilharzia mass drug administration programme targeting children aged between five and 14.
Addressing journalists in Nyanga yesterday, district medical officer Majoni Muungani said seven of the targeted districts have a high burden of soil-transmitted helminths.
He said they are targeting from children from the age of one year to 14 years 11 months for soil-transmitted helminths.
“We have a high prevalence of soil-transmitted helminths in some of our wards,” Muungani said.
“Basically, there are about eight wards that have a high prevalence of transmission of soil-transmitted helminths.
“Then we have about 23 wards that have a high prevalence of schistosomiasis and these are driven by the different weather patterns and sanitation issues that are found in these areas.”
He said they are targeting 26 258 and 8 634 children for bilharzia and soil-transmitted helminths, respectively.
“The name soil-transmitted helminths come from transmission from soil to humans,” he said.
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“If there is soil that is contaminated with, maybe stools or someone who is infected with these worms, they will deposit the eggs of these worms. When someone gets in contact with the soil or if they eat any food that is contaminated with those eggs, they end up getting the infection.”
Speaking during the exercise, Nyasha Mudzongo, the Nyanga district pharmacist, warned of mild side effects such as itching.
“We are using albendazole for soil-transmitted helminths and for bilharzia, we are using praziquantel,” Mudzongo said.
“The main side effect we are expecting for both is itchiness, but we have remedies on standby should it affect any of the children, same goes with other side effects.”
Bilharzia or schistosomiasis is an acute and chronic disease caused by parasitic worms.
Helminths are parasitic worms that can infect humans and other animals.
In Zimbabwe, bilharzia is one of the neglected tropical diseases that the country is fighting to contain and is one of the top 10 reasons for hospital admissions in the country.
