THE health minister of the cholera-ravaged KwaZulu-Natal Province has admitted that the authorities ?never dreamed? the epidemic – which has killed 85 people so far – could become so serious, and warns that it could still be raging by the end of 2002.
Zweli Mkhize told the KwaZulu-Natal legislature that with hundreds of new infections being reported in the province daily, it was unlikely the epidemic could be contained by the start of the southern hemisphere winter.
At the very worst, he warned, the epidemic could still be raging by the end of next year.
Some 30_000 people have fallen ill with the waterborne disease since it broke out in KwaZulu-Natal in August last year. A daily average of reported cases that initially stood at 50 has now risen to 600 and 800, he said.
He said the infection rate was expected to peak in February and March when the risk of cholera is highest. For every person who becomes ill, he added, at least another 10 carriers could spread the disease.
The epidemic – the country’s worst since the early 1980s – has mainly affected communities in rural areas or townships whose residents do not have access to clean water.
It started in KwaZulu-Natal but has since spread to three more of the country’s nine provinces.
In Gauteng Province the disease has spread to townships outside Johannesburg and claimed the life of a four-year-old girl.
In Northern Province, six people died of cholera and more than 200 have been infected, while in North West province three foreigners – a Zimbabwean and two people from Swaziland — were last week diagnosed with the disease.
The government has given a team of officials from the health and water departments until Friday to coordinate a national strategy to combat the disease.
Local government minister Sydney Mufamadi said unless something was done urgently the epidemic could turn into a national disaster.
Officials from the World Health Organisation who visited KwaZulu-Natal recently said the cholera outbreak should be seen as a wake-up call to government to speed up development in rural areas. – AFP