Cholera crisis in Musina
2008-11-18 22:44
Antoinette Pienaar
Musina - Precarious living conditions and the collapse of infrastructure in Zimbabwe have probably led to the serious outbreak of what is believed to be cholera in the Musina area in Limpopo.
A businessman from Yeoville, Johannesburg, had possibly contracted the infection after he stopped at Musina to buy something to eat on his return from a business trip to Bulawayo.
He was admitted to the Charlotte Maxeke Hospital where tests were being done to determine whether he had cholera, said Phumele Kaunda of the Gauteng health authority.
Dr Lucille Blumberg of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases said on Tuesday that laboratory tests still had to confirm whether the infections in South Africa were indeed cholera.
On Tuesday she said provisional information indicated that the disease had its origins in Zimbabwe.
"We regard it as an extremely serious outbreak. We are very worried about conditions across the border. Zimbabwe is a humanitarian disaster."
Up to 1.4 million people are at risk of the infection if it continues to spread unchecked across Zimbabwe, AFP reported Doctors Without Borders as saying on Tuesday, as official media reported 73 people have died of the disease.
The state-run Herald newspaper said that cholera had killed 37 people in Harare, while another 36 died and 431 were hospitalised in Beitbridge, on the border with South Africa.
Blumberg said cholera usually breaks out when natural water sources like streams are contaminated with human faeces.
It is not clear whether the cholera in Harare is related to the outbreak on the border.
Minister of Health Barbara Hogan had instructed the department to support Limpopo and had spoken to a representative of the World Health Organisation (WHO), said Fidel Hadebe, departmental spokesperson.
Hadebe said there was no indication that local water sources had been contaminated.
- Beeld