Zille fears outbreak of deadly diseases

The acute shortage of water and disease could be a deadly mix‚ especially with the food-borne listeriosis outbreak infecting SA, Western Cape premier Helen Zille said on Monday.

She said she was worried about a possible disease outbreak should Cape Town reach Day Zero — now projected to be April 22. This is when the city will switch off most of its taps due to the biggest drought in the Western Cape in a century. She has asked President Jacob Zuma to declare a state of disaster to help manage the Cape Town’s water crisis.

“It’s very unfortunate that this crisis comes at a time when we are also having listeriosis [outbreak]. And listeriosis requires a lot of washing to contain [it]‚ that is the major challenge.”

She said the fear of disease outbreaks was not only confined to humans as the province was also dealing with avian flu.

Colin Deiner, head of disaster management in the Western Cape, said his team had conducted a risk assessment on outbreaks that were related to drought‚ and the province was still dealing with the avian flu.

Wayne Smith‚ head of disaster medicine at the Western Cape’s department of health‚ said some of the diseases to worry about were cholera‚ typhoid and dysentery.

Wherever you have “poor water conditions” and “poor sanitation conditions”‚ disease outbreaks can follow.

“We are busy at the moment‚” he said. “We are in our diarrhoea season, which is common at this early part [of the year].”

He said the province had a plan to ensure it heightened its surveillance so that doctors could quickly raise the alarm for a quick response if an outbreak seemed possible.

Smith said there were also risks of mosquito-borne diseases in the province.