Lim on alert for Typhoid
Detection and prevention is high on the department's priority list, and screening equipment is already in use behind the border gate in a search for signs and symptoms of typhoid and other similar diseases.
LIMPOPO- The Department of Health has placed the province on high alert following a significant increase of typhoid reported in Zimbabwe, where two deaths has already been reported.
Contributing to a great worry about this illness is the illegal entering of Zimbabweans into the province.
Typhoid is an acute illness associated with fever caused by Salmonella typhi bacteria or paratyphi. This infectious disease is waterborne and can be contracted through food or water.
Symptoms listed by www.medicinenet.com includes poor appetite, abdominal pain, fever, intestinal bleeding or perforation (usually after two to three weeks), diarrhoea or constipation, abdominal pain, headaches and lethargy.
The alert has especially been issued to warn those who are returning from Zimbabwe, as many are returning to work or to start the new school year. It is expected that most travellers will make use of the Beit Bridge border post.
Detection and prevention is high on the department’s priority list, and screening equipment is already in use behind the border gate in a search for signs and symptoms of typhoid and other similar diseases.
Nevertheless, the disease cannot be prevented from entering Limpopo easily as many travellers avoid the border pass and enter the country via river or jumping fence. These illegal travellers are thus not screened for typhoid, causing great concern.
“Of course we still face many challenges. Our emergency medical personnel have rescued a number of people who had been crossing the border using the river, those would probably be illegal and are the ones we tend to miss,” says Dr Phophi Ramathuba, Limpopo Health MEC.
No cases of typhoid in South Africa has been reported by the time Bosveld went to print, but the Health Department doesn’t want to take any chances.
“We are making sure that in all our hospitals, especially those on the N1 from Musina Hospital up to Bela Bela, teams are on alert including systems and disaster plans,” says the MEC. Last year, however, a person with typhoid died in South Africa. Some hospitals also reported a few cases during 2016.
Ramathuba says that they are working day and night to make sure they don’t miss any cases of typhoid.
