A third person has died of typhoid in Mpumalanga following an outbreak of the disease, the province’s department of health and social services said on Friday.
”A 46-year-old woman died in Kwamhlanga hospital just after noon this [Friday] morning,” provincial minister of health Mpho Gabashane said in a statement.
”As of today at 1pm, the number of people presenting symptoms of typhoid is 483. Only 88 of this number have been hospitalised,” he said.
Symptoms of the disease were first noticed on August 22.
Gabashane said the government is doing its utmost to stabilise the impact and prevent further outbreaks of typhoid and diarrhoea in the Delmas municipality.
Thirteen nurses and 90 ”health promotion workers” have been sent to the area to help out and conduct door-to-door visits to encourage members of the community to report early symptoms of the disease.
Following Premier Thabang Makwetla’s visit on Thursday, the municipality has been told to enter into possible discussion with the Rand Water board about water provision to Delmas.
”As a result, we are fairly confident that the situation is normalising,” said Gabashane.
He said the number of diarrhoea cases reported had decreased from 218 on Tuesday to 154 on Thursday.
The province’s department of water affairs and forestry said the outbreak has been brought under control.
”As far as I’m aware, the situation is under control. We have warned people to refrain from drinking tap water until we are absolutely certain that the water is safe,” the department’s director general, Jabu Sindane, said.
He said that at a meeting with concerned parties on Thursday, the assurance was given that there were no new cases of typhoid reported.
The next step is to determine the source of the contamination.
Whether typhoid-causing bacteria were found in samples of unchlorinated water will only be known on Saturday, said Carin Bosman, senior manager for resource protection and waste in the department.
Test results for the bacteria Salmonella typhi — taken from chlorinated water earlier this week — were negative.
”Chlorination kills the bacteria. So, you first need to test for the right level of chlorine. Once that has been done, you test for the presence of the bacteria.
”The second thing we need to establish is the source of the problem. The bacteria are carried by the food-mouth route, but water has not been ruled out,” said Bosman.
Further tests will be carried out on Monday to make ”absolutely sure” that the water was not the source of the outbreak.
Meanwhile, South African Broadcasting Corporations news reported that two cases of typhoid have been confirmed in the Eastern Cape.
Two children from Mqanduli, south of Mthatha, have been taken for treatment in East London. — Sapa