Velisha Thompson of the City of Johannesburg writes:
Rodent infestations, associated diseases and control measures are a global public health concern receiving little attention and are often left to individuals to manage.
Rodent infestations predominantly affect the urban poor because conditions in poor communities promote rodent breeding, such as poor sanitation and drainage, open drains, uncollected solid waste, improper storage of food and overcrowding of homes.
The epidemiology of rodent-borne diseases links rodents with a number of diseases such as plague, leptospirosis, Lassa fever, salmonellosis, rat-bite fever, viral hemorrhagic fevers and murine typhus.
These diseases are transmitted through rodent bites, contamination of food with rodent urine or by rodents acting as vectors for other organisms such as fleas. There has been a number of complaints regarding rat bites in Alexandra.
Communities commonly rely on pesticides (which includes rodenticides) to manage rodent infestations as they are perceived to be the most effective method of control.
In poor communities in South Africa, people frequently use ‘illegal street pesticides’ which are often hazardous pesticides meant predominantly for agricultural use but which are decanted into containers without being labelled and sold for domestic use at informal markets.
These pesticides are cheap, easily available, and effective as they are toxic but are not meant for, nor registered for domestic pest control.
A commonly used street pesticide, aldicarb, is so toxic that a 60mg sachet could potentially kill six children who weigh under 10kg. The use of illegal pesticides such as aldicarb has been linked to human poisonings in poor settlements in South Africa.
Region E is currently implementing the use of non-toxic alternatives such as rat traps which require a mind shift for people to accept that these alternatives are as effective and feasible as pesticides.
The region is currently using rat cages as a form of trapping rodents, which is an environmentally friendly and non-toxic method.
The Jozi@Work programme collects and distributes rodent cages in Alexandra.
