Zim, SA to meet on cholera crisis
2008-11-22 14:32
Johannesburg - South African health officials and their Zimbabwe counterparts are expected to meet shortly to discuss the cross-border cholera crisis, the Limpopo Health Department said on Saturday.
"We are meeting our counterparts [soon]," said departmental spokesperson Phuti Seloba when asked if SA was considering intervening in the situation in Zimbabwe.
He said the meeting would discuss the [cholera] problem: "What to do. We have been addressing the problem and not dealing with the source".
He said any possible action SA would take would depend on the outcome of the meeting: "We first need to identify the source before we deliberate on how to deal with it."
Seloba said there had now been 116 reported with Cholera in Musina since last Saturday. Three of these were South Africans and one Zambian. He said all these people had some connection to or history of being in Zimbabwe.
Addressing whether there was cholera risk to the general South African population, "I want to assure South Africans, they are still very safe," said Seloba.
He said there were 17 people in hospital and all were in a stable condition.
Seloba said the rehydration centre at the hospital in Musina was up and running and one at the SA border gate was in the final stages of being set up.
He said the department was still in the process of getting another rehydration centre set up between the Zimbabwe and SA border gates. There have been three fatalities in Musina from cholera.
On Friday, the Kwazulu-Natal health department said a truck driver, who arrived from Zimbabwe and was confirmed to have cholera, was recovering in an isolation ward in Durban's Addington Hospital.
On Friday, SABC news reported that national health minister Barbara Hogan had said that cabinet had approached the World Health Organisation (WHO) to address the cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe as soon as possible.
The Associated Press reported on Friday that the World Health Organisation had indicated that 294 people have died in Zimbabwe from a cholera outbreak.
WHO spokesperson Fadela Chaib was reported by the news agency as saying that a total 6 072 cases had been reported between the start of August and November 18, with an upsurge in cases in the past two weeks.
- SAPA