Villagers carry food and other belongings as they walk across a puddle along a flooded foot path o­n March 4, 2017 heading towards Sipepa flood victims camp from Mbanyana village in Tsholotsho District, in Matabeleland North Province. (Photo by AFP)

At least 150 people have died of malaria in Zimbabwe over the past two months, with nearly 90,000 infections recorded, a government official said Monday, blaming the upsurge o­n intense rains. Medical tests conducted o­n thousands of pupils in 20 public schools in Abuja, Nigeria's capital city, highlighted health challenges that are capable of scuttling their educational dreams.

Malaria kills 150 in Zimbabwe after heavy rains.

At least 150 people have died of malaria in Zimbabwe over the past two months, with nearly 90,000 infections recorded, a government official said Monday, blaming the upsurge o­n intense rains.

"We have seen increased cases of malaria due to the more rains received this year that increased the breeding grounds for mosquitoes," Joseph Mberikunashe, the malaria director in the ministry of health, told AFP.

Mberikunashe said 151 deaths and 89,261 malaria cases had been recorded in the past two months following heavy rains that also caused deadly floods.

He said that while a rise in malaria cases was expected after the rains, some of the deaths may have been caused by delays in seeking medical care.

"The deaths are caused by lack of access to health facilities," he said.

The most affected regions of the country are in the south where floods cut off access to health clinics.

Heavy rains battered the southern African country from December until the end of February, leaving 246 people dead and at least 2,000 people homeless across the country while homes and schools were damaged and several dams burst.

The government has issued an international appeal for aid.

Malaria, infections plague FCT pupils

Female doctors attend to a school boy in o­ne of the 20 LEA schools in Abuja.

         Medical tests conducted o­n thousands of pupils in 20 public schools in Abuja, Nigeria's capital city, highlighted health challenges that are capable of scuttling their educational dreams.

The tests which were carried out by Nigeria Tulip International Colleges' Foundation (NTIC), a humanitarian organization with Turkish origins, under the supervision of the Federal Capital Territory's Universal Basic Education Board, showed some few pupils grappling with the physiological complications of hypospadias.

Malaria, urine infections and even potential threat of kidney damage and early diabetes were among issues also detected.

Aso Chronicle gathered that 11, 647 pupils were screened across 20 Local Education Authority (LEA) primary schools, most of them in urban slums and rural communities of the FCT, in a period of 20 weeks.

NTICF' Coordinator, Behlul Basaran said: "Among the urgent cases we see are some of the pupils with body temperature of 41.3 degree which is too high for their little bodies. It's like burning fire and it is sometimes accompanied with some throat infection and it is clear that we have cases of serious malaria.

"For example, in the statistics  gathered by the school teachers and volunteer medical staff, out of the 498 pupils that we screened in LEA Aleyita, the doctor wrote prescriptions for 135 who have o­ne medical challenge or the other; out of these 135 pupils, we have seen 45 or 30% of them having malaria.

"Out of a batch of 566 pupils that were screened in another school, we saw 35 or 19% having malaria while six percent have urine infection.

"In the sample froma school in Galadimawa, there were 370 pupils out of whom 117 have malaria and 43 percent of the school population has urine infection.

"In o­ne school where we screened 644 pupils, 44 pupils had malaria in their system; at another school, 35 out of 135 pupils had malaria."

He acknowledged teachers' concern that owing to other pressures and the burden of economic hardship, many parents and even affected pupils seem unaware of the gravity of their medical condition.

Citing ethical reasons, Basaran and Professor Burhanettin Usta from Nizamiye Hospital, Abuja, declined to point out children with serious health challenges but agreed that existing levels of urine infection, fever, nutrition and other issues necessitatedt hat parents should pay closer attention to children of primary school age.

 In several cases, doctors gave written prescription for pupils to take home to their parents.

Basaran said there were some serious cases of infection that could have been gotten from either toilet seats or untimely introduction to sexual acts.

 "I count myself very lucky because the NTIC Foundation offers me a job which fulfills my personal passion for altruistic or humanitarian efforts. Nothing can be more fulfilling than seeing people happy," he said.

It was gathered that some urgent cases were taken to Nizamiye Hospital for surgery and other forms of treatment.

FCT officials supervising the programme sponsored by NTICF include two heads of departments from the FCT Universal Basic Education Board, Mr. Adebayo Yusuf and Mrs. R. M. Lawal. Among the volunteer doctors and nurses who were mostly drawn from Nizamiye Hospitalwere doctors Humaira Bashir and Fatimah Abdullahi. Specialists involved included Muhameer Goskun, an ophthalmologist.

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