Cholera could hit 1,4 million

ALEISHA TISSEN and SAPA

JOHANNESBURG - Over 1,4 million people in South Africa and Zimbabwe are at risk of contracting cholera.

This number could escalate if the issue is not urgently addressed, warns Doctors Without Borders.

Yesterday representatives of the SA and Zimbabwean Health Departments met to discuss ways forward in the current cross-border cholera crisis.

Limpopo Health Department spokesman, Phuti Seloba told The Citizen late yesterday afternoon: “The meeting is still under way but we are making headway. We believe we are getting there.”

Seloba said the outbreak has claimed the lives of 294 people in Zimbabwe and another four in SA since the outbreak started in August.

One fatality has been confirmed as a South African.

In the latest cholera related death, a man who was admitted to Durban’s Addington Hospital and placed in an isolation ward has died.

The man is said to have been a truck driver who arrived in SA from Zimbabwe last week.

On Friday Sapa had reported Kwa-Zulu Natal Health department spokesman, Leon Mbangwa as saying the man was awake and “much improved”.

Seloba says the meeting between the countries’ Health Departments focused on how to deal with the water-borne intestinal disease and how to deal with the source, which is Zimbabwe.

Poorly maintained sewerage systems and a lack of clean drinking water have been blamed for allowing the disease to thrive and spread.

The WHO says over 6 000 people have been infected with cholera since August with many more expected due to Zimbabwe’s deteriorating health system.

Since last Saturday, over 162 cholera cases have been reported in the border town of Musina.

Seloba told The Citizen additional rehydration centres were up and running in Musina and at the Beit Bridge border post to deal with the influx of people coming from Zimbabwe for treatment.

He said there are currently 21 people in the Musina hospital in a stable condition.