Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Cholera: 73 new cases in SA

NVDL: If you follow the roll-out of Cholera, it is becoming very widespread across Southern Africa. It's not restricted to Zimbabwe; there are cases as far south as the Western Cape, and as far East as KwaZulu Natal. It's in Limpopo and Gauteng. This implies a serious threat to all our poor communities - and the region has many. I'm unaware of elaborate health services and water safety experts being deployed nationally to forestall a crisis.
clipped from www.news24.com


Johannesburg - A total of 13 new cholera cases have been confirmed in the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and North West, officials said on Monday.


A further 64 suspected cases were reported in Limpopo and Gauteng.


Limpopo water affairs chief director Alson Matukane said ongoing tests of water in the province indicated that parts of the Tubatse River in the Steelpoort area were contaminated with cholera bacteria.


Other parts of the river however tested negative.


"It seems areas that tested positive are where people use plastic containers to carry water."


Matukane said officials were still investigating if the water was contaminated by people or the environment.


Limpopo health department spokesperson Phuti Seloba said about 48 new suspected cases were reported in the province.


Eleven of these reports were in the areas where the Tubatse River had tested positive for the disease. The province's cholera death toll remained at nine.


In Gauteng, 16 more people were suspected to have contracted cholera.

 blog it

No comments: