OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday
SOUTHERN Africas cholera epidemic, which has already killed at least 110 people and infected 15 000 others in Mozambique, South Africa and Swaziland, has spread to Zambia and southern Malawi.
Blantyre City Medical Services Director Lycester Bandawe said 40 residents were admitted to hospital with severe diarrhoea, and recent flooding and growing sanitation problems in the country’s southern Chikwawa and Nsanje districts appeared to have caused the outbreak.
Bandawe’s announcement coincided with the release of Malawi’s National Statistical Office report warning that almost 22%, or two million, of the country’s residents have no access to proper sanitation or sewerage systems.
The disease has also struck the small Zambian town of Kabwe, with 31 cases of the disease and one death recorded in the past week, a health ministry representative said. Central Board of Health director in the Kabwe area, Lendy Kasanda, said he was confident the authorities had managed to contain the disease since it broke out a week ago.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation has praised KwaZulu-Natal’s health department for the way it had fought the province’s cholera crisis. A WHO team is visiting the province to determine the extent of the disease and to give advice on how to fight it.
According to the team the death rate of around 0,5% was the lowest globally involving a cholera epidemic. In an unsuspecting community the disease can kill as many as 50% of the population.
The number of people infected by the disease in KwaZulu-Natal is making it difficult for health staff at rehydration centres to deal with the large numbers of people streaming in.
The department said that since Sunday another 515 cholera cases were reported, bringing the total number of infections to 15983. The death toll was still 60, but more than 500 people remain hospitalised.
The epidemic, which hit South Africa in August, has subsequently spread to Swaziland where it has killed eight people and to Mozambique where it has killed roughly 50 people and infected 2_400 others in Maputo. – AFP/African Eye News Service