19 Sep 2024

The Ngami District Health Management Team (DHMT) has strengthened its response and surveillance measures in order to contain the spread of diarrhoea disease in the district. The district team has mobilised the community to ensure timely and appropriate treatment including the oral rehydration therapy and conducted water sampling in areas having more cases and as of week 36, the district was on alert with 24 cases with no mortalities recorded.

The district began experiencing a rise in diarrhoea cases particularly among the under five years of age population between July and August 2024 where DHMT recorded a total of 622 cases and total of 17 deaths.

Updating  a full council  meeting on Wednesday, North West District Council Chairman, Mr Itumeleng Kelebetseng appreciated efforts by the district health team to contain the disease as well as support from the offices of the district commissioner, council secretary, tribal administration and Land Board.

The Department of Environmental Health at council was also facilitating the DHMT with water sampling in areas having more cases, he revealed. Diarrhoea, he said was a significant contributor to childhood morbidity and mortality and pleaded with fellow councillors, community leadership, heads of departments, members of the media to help spread the message to the public to take care of the children.

He advised the public  to remain calm but vigilant and also visit the nearest health facility should they or their children experience any unusual symptoms, which include dehydration, vomiting, dry lips, sunken eyes, fever, nausea, blood or mucus in the stool.

Further, he  advised the public to keep their environment clean and maintain high standards of hygiene, including always washing their hands with clean water and soap, boiling water for children before drinking it.

Mr Kelebetseng also highlighted that to date, the DHMT has not recorded any case of Mpox but remained vigilant noting that daily screening and surveillance of all international arrivals at the Maun International Airport had started. On other issues, he shared that the Letsholathebe Memorial Hospital continued to face a challenge of replacement of transferred staff and the mass exodus of nurses to the United Kingdom (UK).

He said the replacement of transfers remained a serious challenge as the DHMT continued to struggle with shortage of staff including doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, dentists and radiographers.

“There is still a vacancy of an orthopaedic surgeon since December 2023 and this contributes to continued long waiting times at accident and emergency in the hospital, and also long waiting periods for review of orthopaedic patients.

Therefore the patients are being referred to the Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital and the Mahalapye District Hospital for further specialised care,” he added.

Nonetheless, he said that the DHMT management had requested for a replacement of various cadres from the Ministry of Health as it continuously recruits these cadres outside the country.

In response, some councillors concurred that shortage of specialists was a major concern in the district indicating that the Letsholathebe was a referral hospital but patients could not access services as expected.

They urged  the health ministry to urgently address the issue and also improve drug availability in health facilities. Ends