BULAWAYO – Nearly 26,000 dog bites were recorded across Zimbabwe between January 1 and November 25, the ministry of health says in recently released data.
Incredibly, no-one has died, the ministry said.
In the week ending November 24, 2024, alone, public healthcare facilities treated 610 victims – 105 of them from Midlands province and 81 from Mashonaland West.
The 25,820 dog bites is a sharp increase from the 11,000 for the same period in 2023. The ministry of health’s data does not explain what has caused the spike.
Three people died from dog bites in 2023.
In the latest weekly data, the ministry of health said of the 610 dog bite incidents, 149 bites were inflicted by vaccinated dogs, 135 by unvaccinated dogs and 326 by dogs of unknown status.
Meanwhile, the ministry also reported 122 snake bite cases during the same week, with no deaths. This brings the total number of snake-bite incidents in the country to 3,539 so far this year.
However, despite the alarming number of cases, the death toll from snake bites remains relatively low, with 15 deaths reported.
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