73 new cholera cases in SA
2009-01-12 19:09
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.
48 new cases in Limpopo
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.
Thirty people had been confirmed to have contracted the disease. So far, three people had died of the disease in the province.
Western Cape health spokesperson Faiza Steyn said the department had seven confirmed cases by Monday. The province had not had any cholera-related deaths.
People recovered
KwaZulu-Natal reported four new suspected cases in the Zululand district.
So far, there had been two confirmed cases in the province, said spokesperson for the province's health department Chris Maxon.
The North West, which had reported two cases in December last year, recorded two confirmed cases in the first week of January.
The province's health department spokesperson Nthabiseng Makhongoana said all four people had since recovered.
One of the patients, a Mozambican man, was discharged last week. The other, a Zimbabwean woman, was released from hospital on Monday.
Eastern Cape health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said the province had not recorded any new cholera cases since last month's confirmed one, which had been cured.
- SAPA