By Virginia Njovo
Dog bites cases continue to plague Masvingo province, with statistics released by the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC) indicating that the province has been recording high cases since last year.
A recent Disease Surveillance report by Ministry of Health for 2024’s third quarter indicated that Masvingo and Mashonaland provinces recorded the highest number of cases.
“From the report released in the week ending September 29, 2024, 598 dog bites were recorded nationally and Masvingo Province leads with 99 followed by Mashonaland with 81,” reads the report.
In the report, for the first week of September Masvingo had 102 cases recorded from the total of 553 reported cases where number of dog bites from January up to first week of September were over 19000.
In July 2023 from the 401 reported cases Masvingo had 76 followed by Manicaland with 61 and Midlands with 59.
Masvingo City Council recorded fifty-seven dog bites in Masvingo urban alone in six months with the local authority expressing concern over the flooding of stray dogs in the city.
Masvingo City Council Public Relations Officer Ashleigh Jinjika said they were working with other relevant stakeholders to try and control the situation.
“As Masvingo City, in the first half that is from January to June 2024, we have recorded a total number of 57 dog bites, a figure which is worrisome.
“Stray animals especially dogs spread deadly diseases such as rabies and parvovirus which pose threat to human life through bites and attacks therefore we encourage residents to report stray animals to the Municipal Police and Health Department,” said Jinjika.
She urged pet owners to comply with the regulations which they were given by the City Council.
“Therefore, we encourage pet owners to ensure that they licence their pets as well as vaccinating them so as to reduce the spread of rabies and other infectious diseases since there are penalties for non-compliance,” said Jinjika.
During the February 5, 2024 Council’s Health, Housing and Environmental Services Committee meeting held at Masvingo Municipal Office, the committee raised concern over the rise in dog bite cases and suggested that council take stock of the number of dogs in the commonage.
“On control measures regarding the keeping of dogs in light of rising dog bites, it was suggested that Meter Readers be tasked to take stock of dogs in the commonage to enable Council to institute control measures on the number of dogs per each household,” read part of the minutes.
Speaking to TellZim News, Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) Inspector for Masvingo province, John Chikomo said they picking stray animals to reduce the cases of dog bites.
“We have started collecting stray animals from locations and from town so as to reduce number of strays that pose a danger to human life through bites as well as traffic hazards,” said Chikomo.
He also encouraged residents to report stray dogs in their locations so they know where to go exactly rather to avoid random patrols without heads up.
“There are many stray dogs so far in last week we have collected about 24. I encourage people to make reports on these strays so that we go directly, because due to limited resources we cannot do patrols every time,” added Chikomo.
On average, Zimbabwe reports over 533 dog bites cases in a single week. According to World Health Organisation (WHO) there are no global estimates of dog bites. However, studies suggest that dog bites account for majority of injuries annually, while an estimated of 59 000 die annually from rabies.
