Cholera victim's brother 'fine'

2008-11-24 11:40

Durban - The brother of a Zimbabwean truck driver who died of cholera at the weekend "is shopping in Durban", KwaZulu-Natal Health department spokesperson Chris Maxon said on Monday.

"The brother is fine. He was never admitted into hospital and has no cholera. He is shopping in Durban as we speak," he said, responding to questions by Sapa.

Last week, the health department confirmed that the truck driver had contracted the water-borne infection.

He died on Saturday night, hours after the department said he was improving.

At the time, another health spokesperson Leon Mbangwa said the trucker had been placed in an isolation ward in Durban's Addington Hospital, and that there were no new cases of cholera.

The man had left Zimbabwe with his brother and the two checked into a local Durban lodge last Saturday morning.

By that evening the man was vomiting and suffering from diarrhoea.

He was first admitted to City Hospital before being transferred to Addington Hospital in what Mbangwa at the time described as "a semi-coma condition".

The department told reporters his brother was also under observation, but had not shown any symptoms.

Health officials said they had tracked all the people the man had been in contact with since his arrival in Durban, and the lodge where the two men had stayed had been decontaminated.

Maxon, however, on Monday told Sapa the brother was never admitted into hospital.

'This is very serious'

Democratic Alliance Health spokesperson Mike Waters said the party was concerned.

"This is very serious. The department needs to explain itself because they are contradicting themselves. First they say he was in hospital for observation, and now they say he's shopping and was never admitted into hospital."

He said people wanted to know if the brother was examined.

"We don't want an outbreak of cholera here like in Zimbabwe. We also don't want to create panic in the general population so the department needs to provide the facts," said Waters.

Cholera has claimed the lives of nearly 300 people in Zimbabwe. On its website, the health department provides a list of things that can be done to prevent contracting the cholera infection.

These include using only treated or boiled water; washing all raw food with clean, treated or boiled water; washing hands before eating or handling food; washing food utensils, protecting food from fly contamination; using proper toilet facilities; not allowing children to play in dirty pools; and not leaving sewage where it could be washed into a river by rain.

- SAPA