daniel chigunwe
Prof Francisca Mutapi
Correspondent
As for many people around the world, for Zimbabweans Christmas and New Year are times for family and friends to get together to catch up exchanging news, stories, gifts and sharing meals.
All age groups will be getting together with most people travelling to their rural homes, where festivities will ensue and many city folk will have the opportunity to tend their land and livestock, taking advantage of the recent rains and the availability of manpower. While this gathering of many people in the same place at the same time is a welcome tradition, it is also conducive to unwelcome guests, infectious diseases that are transmitted from person to person.
It is not uncommon to have bouts of diarrhoea, colds, flu and other diseases during such gatherings. Furthermore, for people in rural or resort areas with freshwater bodies such as rivers and lakes, it is critical to avoid exposure to water-borne pathogens such as cholera, giardia, cryptosporidium or bilharzia.
We know from studies in places such as Malawi and South Africa that when people mix, diseases spread. The COVID-19 pandemic also taught us that this is particularly the case when people travel from different areas where a disease may be more prevalent. The good news is that it is possible to reduce the risk of infection through simple relatively cheap infection prevention steps. These include following good sanitation and hand hygiene, good personal hygiene, use of clean water, cooking food carefully and avoiding sharing medication.
First is good sanitation and hand hygiene. The use of toilets is a critical component of infection prevention. Zimbabwe is known globally for the development of the pit latrine which was developed for rural homesteads.
Use of toilets protects people many diseases including cholera, dysentery and diarrhoea as it means faecal matter is safely disposed and susceptible people will not come into contact with these diseases. Related to this is hand hygiene, which means washing hands after using the toilet and before touching of eating food.
Hand washing can be done with water and soap. In the absence of soap, it has been suggested that people may use other materials like ash (the solid remains from cooking stoves and fires) with water.
During the COVID-19 pandemic people also became accounted to using hand sanitisers dispensing alcohol that can be used without water.
Personal hygiene stops you from both catching and spreading diseases. In addition to hand hygiene, it includes cleaning your body every day, brushing teeth, covering your mouth and nose with a tissue (or your sleeve) when sneezing or coughing and washing your hands after handling pets and other animals and before eating or preparing food.
The water used for personal hygiene, drinking, cooking and other domestic chores needs to be safe.
In the absence of mains treated water it is important to treat water domestically through the normal practices of chlorination or boiling water. In rural areas it is preferable to avoid using river water for domestic chores and washing.
This is not always practical, but river water can be treated for bilharzia by heating on a fire until it is too hot to touch or by storing the water for at least 12 hours (longer in cooler weather).
Food borne disease such as food poisoning and infections including those caused by parasitic worms such as tapeworms and trematodes are common in Africa.
To avoid these it is important to wash fruits, vegetables, and salad with safe water as well as to cook vegetables and meat to destroy harmful micro-organisms.
Undercooked meat, for example pork, can carry parasitic infections that can cause serious illness including epilepsy.
If you are unfortunate to become unwell, it is important to avoid self-treatment for serious illness; you should seek medical care to avoid wrong diagnosis and wrong treatment. Furthermore, it is important to obtain medication from a registered pharmacy and not to share or use leftover or out-of-date drugs.
Following this will ensure sick people receive medicine that works and not inappropriate medication or an incorrect dosage.
Adhering to these steps will ensure that you have a happy and healthy Christmas and New Year break.
Francisca Mutapi is a Professor in Global Health Infection and Immunity. and co-Director of the Global Health Academy, University of Edinburgh.
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