Fifty-nine people in South Africa have died since the cholera outbreak spread from neighbouring Zimbabwe in November, Health Minister Barbara Hogan said on Monday.
Briefing the media in Pretoria, Hogan said the disease had claimed 59 lives from November up until last Saturday (March 7).
”One dead is too much and we had had 59,” she said.
She said 12 324 cases had been reported.
However, she said there had been a steady decline and cholera was mostly confined to Mpumalanga and Limpopo.
”It is present but is going down. We believe that the cholera situation is very under control, but it does not mean we are not monitoring,” she said.
Hogan was unable to verify if the 59 people who had died of cholera were all South Africans.
She said she did not have statistics, however, ”all people are human beings”.
”Cholera showing signs of slowing”
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday that the cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe was showing signs of slowing as the death toll crept closer to the 4 000 mark.
About 87 998 cases had been recorded by March 5, including 3 975 deaths since August 2008, WHO spokesperson Fadela Chaib said.
The figures are regularly compiled with Zimbabwe’s health ministry.
Chaib said the number of cases had been averaging 4 000 to 4 ,500 a week recently, compared with peaks of nearly 8 000 earlier in the outbreak.
”We have recorded a certain decline in cases and deaths from week to week,” Chaib told journalists.
”That doesn’t mean we should lower our guard, we have to remain vigilant because we are still in a major health crisis in Zimbabwe,” she added.
In the week to February 21, 4 095 cases were recorded, compared with 5 471 the preceding week.
Although more cholera centres are opening around the country, some rural areas are still not covered.
The WHO is still analysing the situation and will report on the signs of a slowdown within weeks, Chaib said. — Sapa