So. Africa Cholera cases

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Source: http://www.swradioafrica.com/news231208/cholera231208.htm

Cholera deaths near Johannesburg as cholera continues to spread

By Alex Bell
23 December 2008

As the cholera outbreak continues to rage out of control in Zimbabwe, the spread of the disease is becoming more pronounced, with new deaths being reported in the South African province surrounding Johannesburg.

The disease has already left its mark in Zimbabwe?s neighbouring country, but until recently the disease had been fairly limited to the Limpopo province, with the border town Musina being worst affected. Hundreds of sick and desperate Zimbabweans have crossed the border in an attempt to receive the critical treatment lacking in Zimbabwe and at least eight deaths have been reported at the border?s treatment facility so far.

But the disease is now spreading further into South Africa, with the third reported death in the Gauteng province over the weekend. Gauteng, home to both the economic centre of Johannesburg and the national capital of Pretoria, now has 21 positively identified cases of cholera, with the heaviest concentration reported to be in the Johannesburg area. The city is the favoured destination for Zimbabwean migrants, and the new cholera deaths have prompted fears of a serious outbreak there.

Meanwhile new cholera cases have been reported in other parts of the Limpopo province, including Botlokwa, Madimbo, Dilokong and Knobel. Musina recorded 15 new cases since Sunday, bringing the total number of suspected cases treated in the area to 909, with five patients still in hospital. Botlokwa meanwhile has reported 18 new cases while 11 were recorded in Madimbo. A total of 23 cases were also reported in Dilokong, with 42 people being treated in hospital. The town of Knobel had three new cases, which brings the number of suspected cases in the area to 49.

As the year end approaches, there are now concerns that there could be further outbreaks over the Christmas holidays, when Zimbabweans who live in South Africa return home to visit relatives, perhaps risking infection and the further spread of the disease. At the same time, there are reports that Musina is at ?breaking point? because of the high number of Zimbabweans still fleeing their homes. It?s believed an estimated 1000 Zimbabweans are living on the streets of Musina in deplorable conditions, while at least 300 applications for asylum are being made each day.

 

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Re: So. Africa Cholera cases

Source: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=125&art_id=nw20090119190232780C925618

Cholera claims 19 lives in Mpumalanga
January 20 2009 at 12:23AM

The cholera death toll in Mpumalanga has reached 19 since the outbreak of the waterborne disease in December 31 last year, the provincial health department said on Monday.

Spokesperson Mpho Gabashane said of the 19 people dead, 16 of them died in Matikwane, two in Mapulaneng and one in Mmamethlake hospitals in the Ehlanzeni District.

The province on Monday declared all water sources in the affected areas unsafe, except for tap water.

Since December 31 last year, Gabashane said,the province's hospitals had treated up to 642 people suffering from symptoms of cholera. The total number of patients tested positive for cholera had reached 49.

Gabashane said the number of people treated for cholera symptoms had been increasing since Friday in four local municipalities in the Ehlanzeni District. The Thokozani, Jim Brown, Marite, Cork, Cunningmore, Culcutta and Mkhuhlu clinics were identified as the busiest with Thokozane, Jim Brown, Cork and Mbombela North recording the highest cholera cases.

Oakely, Mapulaneng, Matikwane, Lydenburg and Themba Hospitals also treated the highest number of patients.

The health dapartment has come under attack by the Christian Party, which accused it of failing to provide continuous health care to cholera patients.

"Mpumalanga's water sources remain critically susceptible to cholera and other waterborne diseases, and more so when the province receives rainfall like it has over the past couple of days," said party leader Louis Marneweck.

The party is due to meet with the SA Human Rights Commission later in the month to discuss their complaint against the department.

However, Gabashane said ongoing tests were being conducted on the province's water sources and that medical assistance was accelerated to deal with the cholera outbreak.

"Water tests that have been conducted in water sources, focusing on streams, wells and rivers have revealed the presence of cholera in them, especially in Ngwaritsi River," Gabashane said.

"We are as of today [Monday] declaring all water sources, except tap water, to be unsafe for human consumption.

We urge our people in these affected areas not to use water from streams, wells and rivers," he said.

The province has already started supplying its affected residents with water tanks.

Experts from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases and the World Health Organization arrived in Mpumalanga on Thursday to provide "technical support" on the disease.

Gabashane said that since then tents with stretchers had been arranged in Matikwane hospital to deal with the sudden increase of cholera patients in the area.

"A team of expects has been deployed in the areas to assist with case management. We have received additional resources donated by the Red Cross," he said.

Two weeks ago the province recorded the first cholera death after a woman and her husband in December last year visited Zimbabwe, where thousands are dying of the disease due to the collapse of the health system in that country.

The woman tested positive for cholera and died a couple of days after being admitted in hospital, but her husband was negative and survived.

Warning residents that it was critical for them to boil water for at least three minutes before use, Gabashane also advised them to add a teaspoon of bleach to 25 litres of water containers.

He appealed to everyone in the province "to adhere to minimum hygiene practices" to be safe.

"We will closely monitor the situation and at any given point in time we will deploy additional resources when the need arises," he said. - Sapa

 

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Re: So. Africa Cholera cases

Source: http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=922225

Cholera a concern ? but ?no crisis?
Nkosana Lekotjolo Published:Jan 21, 2009

Provinces confirm 32 dead and 3000 infected

THE national health department says there is no cholera crisis in South Africa ? despite the fact that 32 people have been killed by the disease in this country, 28 of them South Africans.

About 3000 people in South Africa have been infected by the easily treatable water- borne disease since November.

In neighbouring Zimbabwe ? the source of many of the South African infections ? more than 2200 people have been killed by cholera and more than 42000 infected, according to the UN.

Asked whether the cholera outbreak in South Africa constituted a crisis, national health department spokesman Fidel Hadebe said: ??I don?t think we can talk about [a] crisis ... We are, however, concerned about our own people dying and more getting infected in ... big numbers.?

The death toll soared this week when Mpumalanga health authorities confirmed that 19 people, thought to have been suffering only from diarrhoea, had died of cholera since early this month.

Yesterday, provincial officials confirmed that all 19 dead were South Africans. Phumelele Kaunda, the provincial health department spokeswoman, said the number of confirmed cholera infections had increased from 33 to 39.

All nine of the people who have died of cholera in Limpopo were South Africans, according to provincial health spokesman Phuti Seloba. The number of infections in the province had risen from 91 on Monday to 111 yesterday, bringing total infections since November to 2 550.

Three people ? two Zimbabweans and a Namibian ? have died of the disease in Gauteng, and a Zimbabwean has died in KwaZulu-Natal.

At least five people have been infected in North West, and seven in Western Cape, but no fatalities have been reported in these provinces.

Figures supplied to The Times by the provincial health departments showed that at least 2979 people had been infected.

# Up to R49-million has been allocated to deal with water-supply problems in Mpumalanga in the wake of the cholera outbreak in the province, the provincial government said yesterday. ? Additional reporting by Sapa

 

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Re: So. Africa Cholera cases

Source: http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=926574

Over 3,000 Limpopo cholera cases
Sapa Published:Jan 27, 2009

The number of cholera patients in Limpopo has passed the 3,000 mark since an outbreak hit the province almost three months ago, the provincial health department said today.

# Cholera plan kicks into action

# Drop in SA cholera cases

# Deadly cholera across Southern Africa

Spokesman Phuti Seloba said a total of 3,114 people affected by cholera had been through the province?s health facilities since November last year.

These cases included 82 people between yesterday and this afternoon.

A total of 11 lives had been lost to the disease in the province.

African National Congress president Jacob Zuma and Health Minister Barbara Creecy visited patients in Musina in the Vhembe District today.

Vhembe, together with Sekhukhune and Capricorn districts, was identified by Limpopo health MEC Seoparo Charles Sekoati as having the highest number of cholera patients with 68 new cases treated in the areas since yesterday.

Zuma and Creecy arrived in the province to the news that the Tubatse river which had been contaminated with cholera in parts, had since been cleared of the disease.

However, a canal in Tsakane had tested positive for E-coli and Vibrio Cholerae.

Greater Sekhukhune District Municipality spokesman Sizwe Yende said laboratory tests indicated that water sources in most villages located along the Tubatse river were no longer contaminated with the disease.

Recent tests were conducted on samples taken from water sources in Ga-Mampuru, Ga-Phasha, Steelpoort, Nazareth and Tsakane villages.

Yende said though the results on the Tubatse river came as a relief, it did not mean that the municipal water authority and its partners would rest on their "laurels".

It would continue to implement its initial plans to curb the outbreak.

 

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Re: So. Africa Cholera cases

Source: http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=930873

Limpopo cholera deaths rise but Kruger Park water ?safe?

03 February 2009
Frank Maponya

At least 20 people have died from cholera in Limpopo ? nine in the past two weeks alone.

The department of health and social development yesterday announced four new deaths.

Spokesman Phuti Seloba said test results from people suspected to have died of cholera had come out positive.

He said a woman, 54, died on January 16. A day later a man and a girl died at WF Knobel Hospital in Moletjie. A woman died on January 8 at Helene Franz Hospital in Senwabarwana.

Seloba said five other deaths were reported last week, two at the WF Knobel Hospital and three at the Dilokong Hospital in Sekhukhune.

Meanwhile, Alfred Moselakgomo reports that authorities in the Kruger National Park said visitors and staff were not in danger though the main rivers that flow through the tourist jewel have been contaminated with cholera.

?Our drinking water is safe,? the park?s chief executive David Mabunda said yesterday.

 

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Re: So. Africa Cholera cases

Source: http://www.buanews.gov.za/news/09/09020314151001

Compiled by the Government Communication and Information System
Date: 03 Feb 2009
Title: 4 000 cholera cases reported in Mpuma

Mpumalanga - More than 4 000 cases of cholera have been confirmed in Mpumalanga and 26 people have died since the outbreak of the disease earlier this year.

The areas most affected include Mbombela North which has a reported 2 206 cases, Bushbuckridge with 1 443, Mbombela south with 184, Nkomazi with 166, Thabachweu with 161 and Umjindi with six cases.

The deaths were reported in the following areas, Mbombela North, Thabachweu and Bushbuckridge where 22 people died.

The provincial Department of Health said, however, the number of admitted people in hospital has declined and only 15 people were on treatment.

Departmental spokesperson Mpho Gabashane said the department was continuing with its door-to-door campaign and an intensive mass mobilisation and health education campaign in all the affected areas.

"We have up until now reached 86 178 people, visited 7 061 household during our door to door campaign, visited 63 schools to conduct health education, attended 44 funerals and 20 churches for mass mobilisation."

In a bid to educate people about the danger of the disease, the department has distributed over 32 795 stickers and leaflets on health education, 5328 750ml of Jik and 1 6643 sachets of chlo floc for water treatment in all affected areas.

"With all these interventions put in place, and more importantly with the support from the community, we can indeed continue to bring down incidents of cholera in our province," Mr Gabashane said.

He further called on communities to internalise basic hygiene practices as a cornerstone for prevention of many communicable diseases especially waterborne and anyone who suspects the have cholera to report to the nearest health facility for treatment.

The water-borne disease was first detected in Musina, Limpopo, last year and it has since spread to other provinces.

Last week, the South African National Parks (SanParks) said they would be conducting tests to the rivers and streams that run through their parks, especially the Kruger National Park in Mpumalanga, despite their being no report of any visitor contracting the disease.

SanParks Chief Executive Officer, Dr David Mabunda said that while tourists do not drink directly from the rivers, it was imperative to ensure they remain free from the disease.

Meanwhile, the death toll from the cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe has now passed the 3 000 mark and 57 702 have been affected since August last year, according to the World Health Organisation. - BuaNews

 

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Re: So. Africa Cholera cases

Source: http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=931725

Cholera epidemic spreads as 80 new cases reported

04 February 2009
Frank Maponya

Eighty new cholera cases have emerged in Limpopo as the disease continues to spread like wild fire in the province.

But the official death toll remained unchanged at 20 yesterday.

Provincial spokesman for the department of health and social development, Phuti Seloba, said new cases of infections were increasing and putting the lives of ordinary people in danger.

The latest developments bring to 3680 the total number of cases that had been dealt with since the outbreak of the disease on November 15 last year.

Seloba said the Vhembe district had 16 new cases, Capricorn 37, Sekhukhune nine, Mopani two and Waterberg 16.

?The disease is really spreading at a fast pace and this is cause for concern,? Seloba said yesterday.

?A worrying factor is that if people do not take the necessary precautions to avoid contracting the disease, we might not guarantee their safety,? he added.

According to Seloba, the department was providing bleach and soap to most of the villages affected or likely to be affected by the epidemic in order to prevent further loss of life.

The disease was first believed to have been brought about as a result of the high influx of Zimbabweans who crossed into South Africa to seek treatment. This was after they were found to have been exposed to contaminated sewerage water in their country, resulting in the outbreak. But now the majority of those contracting the disease or dying from it are South African citizens.