Mkoba Teachers College in Gweru was forced to close yesterday after more than 500 students were reportedly struck by a bout of diarrhoea.
The cases were recorded in a single month and according to Midlands Provincial Medical Director Dr Mary Machekaza, the break was to allow effective measures to be applied prior to the reopening of the school.
“As at November 13 the school had recorded a total number of 508 diarrhoea cases cumulatively, since the emergence of the outbreak on the 3rd.
“The closure of school is to allow measures to be put in place,” she wrote.
She added that out of the eight water samples that were taken for examination in the laboratories, three were not fit for human consumption.
Machekaza also said the preliminary findings showed that the kitchen hygiene routine at the school was very poor, resulting in the contamination of food.
“We recommend the temporary closure of the school and postponement of all scheduled events for fourteen days, until all recommendations made to the institution have been thoroughly met,” she said.
The closure of the college comes at a time when the institution’s students are writing their end of year examinations, a situation which is likely to affect the learners’ results.
The closure of Mkoba Teachers’ College comes at a time when the nation is battling a serious Cholera outbreak that has several people losing their lives whilst hundreds have been hospitalized due to the primitive disease.
