30 Sep 2018

Community health nurse for Kanye District Health Management Team (DHMT), Mr Moemedi Ramhikela, says his team is on high alert following outbreak of diarrhoea in some parts of the country.

The team’s readiness, he said, included rapid response team consisting stakeholders such as district administration, environmental health and others to monitor the situation.

“The situation calls for multi sectoral approach to substantially contain the disease and to effectively spread the message,” he said.

Other interventions include  house to house campaigns, follow up of cases and public engagement hrough dikgotla.

According to Mr Ramhikela, Kanye DHMT experienced a sharp rise on the number of diarrhoea cases reported within its jurisdiction comprising 17 health facilities including Kanye Adventist Hospital.

“We did not immediately record any case following the outbreak of the disease like other parts of the country until week 36 when three cases of diarrhoea were confirmed. The number has since gone up,” he said. 

Also, Mr Ramhikela pointed out that Kanye DHMT had registered 32 cases of diarrhoea between September 23 and  26 bringing the total number of diarrhoea cases within Kanye DHMT to 90.

He said, however, that Kanye DHMT had recorded zero cases of fatalities due to the outbreak.

The team (Kanye DHMT) according to the Community Health Nurse, was awaiting results of food, water and stools samples that had been sent to the laboratory in Gaborone to establish the cause of the disease. 

Parents and guardians were advised to ensure they had atleast two sachets of Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS) and Zinc Sulphate tablet with them at all times to administer in case children showed signs of diarrhoea.

“This is important because we have realized that children usually die from dehydration than causative agent which could either be viral or bacterial,” he said.

When dispensing the two, according to Mr Ramhikela, one should never be mistaken to be an end by itself as parents will still be required to take ailing children to the nearest health facility for further examination. ENDS