BULAWAYO – The City of Bulawayo said Wednesday it had temporarily removed the suburb of Luveve from its water rationing schedule following an outbreak of a diarrheal disease which has killed five people and forced hundreds to seek hospital treatment.

The announcement came as Mpilo Central Hospital, the city’s biggest referral centre, revealed that the outbreak could be much more widespread than first thought.

Dr Xolani Ndlovu, the acting clinical director at Mpilo Hospital said they had, in recent days, admitted patients from other suburbs including Nkulumani, Donnington, Old Magwegwe, Emganwini, Cowdray Park, Gwabalanda, Rangemore and Iminyela.

“Last night, we admitted 12 people suffering from severe diarrhea. These include nine adults and three children,” Dr Ndlovu said on Wednesday.

Tests conducted so far from rectal swabs were negative for notifiable diseases like cholera, typhoid and shigella which causes dysentery.

ZimLive understands that authorities have decided to test everyone presenting at local clinics and hospitals with the diarrheal symptoms for Covid-19. The patients had so far not been tested for Covid-19 owing to a shortage of test kits, according to sources.

Covid-19 has killed four people so far in Zimbabwe from 391 infections, according statistics from the ministry of health. Of that number 62 people have recovered.

The City of Bulawayo maintains that there is “no reason to believe” the outbreak is connected to intermittent water supply, and insists that its water is safe to drink.

After receiving complaints of suspected contaminated water, city chiefs dispatched water quality teams to take samples, test and recommend correctional measures.

“Due to water shedding (rationing), samples were taken from the containers (buckets) in the households which were being used for portable use and the results were unsatisfactorily indicating bacterial presence,” a statement from the local authority said.

The team also took samples from the municipal sampling points and concluded that the “results were satisfactory” and “there was notable inconsistency between the two sources (household and municipal water).” The city has encouraged residents to boil water before drinking during the period of intermittent water supply.

The outbreak comes as the city has imposed a six-day water rationing regime after a prolonged drought devastated the city’s water supply dams which are all located in the parched Matabeleland South province.

Five people – four children and one adult – have died at Mpilo Hospital since the outbreak was first reported early this month.

As of Tuesday, the hospital had treated over 60 people who presented with severe diarrhea.

This week, hundreds of Luveve residents were receiving free treatment at the local clinic as authorities raced to prevent more deaths.

“When people suffering from diarrhea seek treatment late, they risk being affected by acute kidney failure. A number of patients are coming here very late hence the fatalities we are witnessing which could be avoided by seeking treatment early. People have a tendency of trying to manage the illnes in its infancy instead of seeking treatment early,” said Dr Ndlovu.