3 Zimbabwean cholera patients die in South Africa

3 Zimbabwean cholera patients die in South Africa

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Posted to the web: 20/11/2008 11:25:31
THREE Zimbabweans have died of cholera in neighbouring South Africa, where dozens of people have come in search of treatment after an outbreak back home, a health official said Thursday.

"Three Zimbabwean patients have so far died since Saturday. The latest casualty was recorded Wednesdaay evening," said Phuti Selobi, spokesman for the health department in the border town of Musina.

South Africa has identified a total of 72 cholera cases. All but two of them are Zimbabweans, Selobi said.

Zimbabwe is grappling with a cholera outbreak that has killed 73 people in recent weeks, about half of them in the town of Beitbridge, just across the border from South Africa, according to state media in Harare.

South African health officials have stepped up their efforts to check for the disease on the border, amid signs the disease is reaching deeper into the country, Selobi said.

A South African truck driver was found with cholera in the southern coastal city of Durban, after he returned from Zimbabwe at the weekend, provincial health official Leon Mbangwa told AFP.

"He is in a coma in a hospital. He cannot talk," Mbangwa said.

Zimbabwe's economic collapse has fuelled the outbreak as basic water and sanitation services break down across the country.

Up to 1.4 million people in Zimbabwe are at risk of the water-borne disease, Doctors Without Borders said Tuesday.

"We have set up a rehydration centre near the border to handle cases and to relieve the hospital. Not all patients need to visit a hospital to get cholera treated," Selobi said.

He insisted that South Africa did not face a cholera threat because the two countries do not share a common water source.

Up to 1.4 million people in Zimbabwe are at risk of the water-borne disease, Doctors Without Borders said Tuesday.

Zimbabwe's health system, once among the best in Africa, has collapsed under the weight of the world's highest inflation rate, last estimated at 231 million percent in July.

Cholera is endemic in parts of rural Zimbabwe, but had been rare in the cities, where most homes have piped water and flush toilets.

But after years of economic crisis, the nation's infrastructure is breaking down, leaving many people without access to clean water or proper sanitation. - AFP
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