Blantyre DHO alert on scabies outbreak

Blantyre District Health Office on Monday said it was on the look out to protect its community members against scabies illness as they are geared to start rolling out sensitization campaigns in preventing the epidemic.

In an interview with Malawi News Agency (Mana) Monday in Blantyre, Director of Health and Social Services for Blantyre District, Dr. Gift Kawalazira said despite that Community Health Workers are continuously hands on in sensitizing communities on the health issues, scabies will be intensified.

“We are going to officially notify Community Health Workers this week to start conducting sensitization campaigns particularly on how to prevent contracting the disease which has become rampant in some parts of the country.

“Health workers will be on surveillance to quickly pick up cases in the community for prompt treatment before they spread to others through skin to skin contact,” he explained.

Kawalazira said crowded places like schools and communities would be sensitized on personal skin hygiene and need to be alert and report any skin rashes to clinics in time for treatment.

He said Blantyre has since the outbreak not recorded any case.

The contagious and itchy skin condition that spreads through physical contact has so far hit districts like Lilongwe, Kasungu, Mchinji, Dowa and Machinga.

According to Lilongwe DHO, Bwaila Hospital only had recorded 4,000 scabies cases between the month of January and June, 2019 both in the rural and urban areas, attributing the outbreak to poor hygiene.

Source:Mana