51 dead from cholera

51 dead from cholera

A total of 51 people have died from cholera in South Africa over the past three months, MPs heard on Wednesday.

Presenting the latest figures on the cholera epidemic, health department communicable diseases manager Frew Benson told Parliament's water affairs portfolio committee there have been a total of 8100 cases in the country since October-November last year.

Most of these - 4165 cases - had been in Mpumalanga, the province with the most deaths, 30. Second was Limpopo, with 3680 cases and 20 deaths. There had also been 234 cases in Gauteng, with three deaths.

Less affected provinces were Western Cape (nine cases, one death), North West (seven cases), KwaZulu-Natal (two cases, one death), Eastern Cape (one case), Free State (one case) and Northern Cape (one case).

According to graphs distributed at the briefing, the number of cases in the two worst-affected provinces - Mpumalanga and Limpopo, which account for over 96 percent of the total cases in the country - peaked in the period January 15 to 25, and have since declined.

Figures presented by Benson also show the epidemic - centred on Zimbabwe, where there have been 48 623 reported cases and 2755 deaths since August last year - to have spread into surrounding southern African countries.

The figures for other countries in the region cover the period from October or November last year up to mid-January this year.

While South Africa has been the worst affected, Mozambique, which has reported 3333 cases and 46 deaths, is not far behind.

Zimbabwe's northern neighbour, Zambia, has 2267 reported cases of the disease, with 28 deaths; Angola has reported 643 cases and eight deaths; and Namibia 58 cases and five deaths.

Botswana has reported only six cases, and no deaths.

The health department has pinned the blame for the spread of the disease in South Africa on, among other things, inadequate safe water and sanitation in certain areas, and the migration of infected people from affected countries and areas.

It says another reason is the onset of heavy summer rains in the north of the country, which have "exacerbated the bad sanitation situation in some areas". - Sapa