OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Saturday
FIVE of the nine provinces in South Africa have reported cholera cases since the start of the initial outbreak in KwaZulu-Natal five months ago, the national Department of Health said on Friday.
The outbreak in KwaZulu-Natal has resulted in 64 deaths and nearly 18 000 people have been infected by the disease.
At the beginning of the year Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang warned that the disease could spread to the rest of South Africa as holidaymakers and migrant workers returned home after spending the festive season in KwaZulu-Natal. Health authorities in all the provinces were placed on full alert.
Since then there had been an outbreak of cholera at Elandshoek and KyNyamazane near Nelspruit in Mpumalanga. So far 27 people have been treated for the disease.
The disease was allegedly imported from Mozambique, where a cholera epidemic claimed the lives of at least fifty people. Only one Mpumalanga case, that of a Machadodorp postal worker, could be traced back to KwaZulu-Natal.
Seven cholera cases were confirmed in Gauteng and three suspected cases were still awaiting results. The cases were imported from KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland and Northern Province. Two cases, of which one was imported from Swaziland, were reported in North West, while the Free State reported one case where an 11-year-old boy returning from KwaZulu-Natal shortly before Christmas was treated for cholera.
“The small number of cases in the Free State, North West and Gauteng have all been imported cases. “Given the size of the KwaZulu-Natal epidemic and the substantial outbreaks in neighbouring states, plus the intense patterns of migration over the December/January period, imported cases were certainly to be expected,” the department said.
It was encouraging that no cholera cases had been reported in the Eastern Cape, which borders KwaZulu-Natal and which has an exceptionally low availability of tapped water and sanitation. KwaZulu-Natal, however, remained hardest hit with an average of 475 new cases reported daily.
The department said health facilities in the province were coping with the enormous workload and their effectiveness was reflected in the low fatality rate of less than 0,5%.
In the meantime, health officials in the Northern Province said an outbreak of severe diarrhoea in villages around Potgietersrus had not been caused by cholera.
Health department representative Charlie Nkadimeng said the diarrhoea had been caused by an “unknown bacteria”. So far four people have died and more tan 30 others were being treated at hospitals in the area.