The latest council report revealed that the BCC ran out of spraying chemicals some three months ago.
“Investigations have shown that there was heavy mosquito breeding in all streams and stagnant pools of sewage and residents raised complaints about that,” says the report.
“The problem was compounded by the fact that the pest control section under the health, housing and education department had not been able to get the larviciding chemical for over three months now.”
There was urgent need to engage spray men for the control of mosquitoes, says the report.In July, health officials investigated reports of confirmed malaria cases in Bulawayo and Harare with a view of determining if female mosquitoes in the two cities were now transmitting malaria.
This followed reports that some people who had not left Bulawayo or Harare in a long time had their blood samples examined which confirmed that they were suffering from malaria.
A Ministry of Health and Child Welfare official recently revealed that Bulawayo and Harare may now be malaria transmission zones as resistance to first line treatment was rising.
Bulawayo and Harare have always been known to be non-malaria transmission zones.
The last malaria stratification map was done in 2002, but now there are reportedly cases of malaria in Bulawayo and Harare, an indication that the two areas were now also malaria transmission zones.
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Border areas such as Manicaland, Mudzi, Beitbridge, Victoria Falls and Kariba have always been considered the most vulnerable to malaria.
