Race to halt the cholera deaths
● Command centre set up to tackle crisis in Hammanskraal ● Mayor forced to flee angry crowd as fatalities climb to 15
AN INVESTIGATION has been launched into the cause of the escalating cholera crisis in Hammanskraal, which had claimed 15 lives by yesterday afternoon.
The Department of Water and Sanitation with provincial health departments have set up a command centre to halt the spread of the infectious waterborne disease in Hammanskraal, north of Pretoria, after five additional deaths were reported at the Jubilee District Hospital.
Yesterday afternoon, Water and Sanitation Deputy Minister David Mahlobo announced the number of fatalities had risen to 15.
Mahlobo said that as a result of the escalating crisis, the government had established a co-ordinated command centre – which would operate at the political and technical level – to find an immediate and effective solution and avoid further deaths.
The deputy minister said the Health Department would lead this initiative, which involved the Department of Social Development and the City of Tshwane, as well as the Department of Defence and the SAPS, which had been called in to attend to additional issues that might occur.
At the technical level, multi-disciplinary teams reporting to the director-general of Health had been established to focus on different aspects, including the health sector’s capacity to curb the spread of cholera, while conducting scanning to ensure that the disease was contained in one area.
“We have a team dealing with issues of scanning as there are concerns of mobility with a number of people moving around, so we need to contain the situation so that neighbouring provinces and other urban areas in Tshwane are not affected.”
Mahlobo said that in addition to efforts to curb and contain the situation, a formal investigation was already
under way to establish the cause of the outbreak.
“The formal investigation will determine what caused this problem of water contamination and whether there has been any negligence on the part of any individual or institution.
“A team of experts has already been established, led by two deputy directors-general in the Department of Water and Sanitation who are engineers, so they know their way around.”
According to Mahlobo, the investigation would look at all the water sources used by the municipality to supply water to residents, including from Rand Water and the Magalies system.
While the investigations continue, the community would be provided with trucked-in water. Residents would be kept informed on what was happening.
“We need to be able to arrest this
incident, and we are hopeful that working with all the structures and community leaders, we should be able to avoid any further deaths.”
The first cases of cholera were reported in early February, from two sisters who had reportedly travelled together from Johannesburg to Malawi to attend a funeral service and had returned by bus on January 30.
Both sisters had developed symptoms on their return to Johannesburg, with one of them reportedly visiting a local clinic.
While Tshwane Mayor Cilliers Brink was also due to join the leadership at the hospital and outline the city’s plans for assisting, he was turned away by disgruntled and angry residents.
In spite of the refusal by residents to allow the municipality head to join the visit to the hospital, Tshwane member of
the mayoral committee for health, Rina Marx, said a unit had been dispatched by the city to assist with the screening at the hospital, with peer educators already out and about going door-to-door to help advise residents on how to keep their water safe and clean.
Meanwhile, the City of Tshwane added that the results from sampling testing taken from multiple sites around Temba and Hammanskraal indicated zero cholera from the piped water supply.
The municipality said that although there was no cholera detected, this did not make the water safe to drink as it was heavily treated with chlorine.
In light of this finding, the city said that it had also widened its scope of testing and had been interviewing various patients to assist in tracing the source of contamination.
THE Free State MEC for Health, Mathabo Leeto, convened a multi-sectoral meeting on Sunday with the District Outbreak Response Teams and Development Partners, which included the executive mayors of Fezile Dabi and Ngwathe as well as councillors.
There was an update on the interventions to stem the spread of diarrhoea and cholera in Vredefort and Parys, as well as nearby areas of Fezile Dabi and the entire Free State, according to Mondli Mvambi, spokesperson for the Free State Department of Health.
Mvambi said: “According to the reports presented at the meeting, around 76 patients were examined at various clinics and hospitals throughout the district with diarrhoeal diseases, and six were proven positive for cholera and successfully treated at Parys Hospital and Boitumelo Hospital in Kroonstad.”
He said following the identification of the first laboratory-confirmed case in the Free State on May 17, the province, district, and local area Outbreak Response Teams were activated and included the local and district municipalities, supported by the World Health Organization and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases.
“These teams were already in the district since May 8 after the Communicable Disease District Co-ordinator from Fezile Dabi District was notified of a rapid, sudden increase in diarrhoea cases in the Ngwathe Local Municipality area.
“The teams working in Vredefort and Ngwathe, in general, are continuously monitoring the quality of water for all water sources supplying water to the community, and environmental risk assessments are also ongoing,” Mvambi said.
Leeto said she appreciated the intervention efforts embarked upon by the Outbreak Response Teams and encouraged them to work with all stakeholders in the area to curb any further spread or recurrence of infections.
She warned that diarrhoea and cholera are on the rise in Southern Africa, and rapidly spreading nationally, and need to be halted as early as possible.
She added that there were no cholera or diarrhoea-related deaths in the Free State and that the six confirmed cases of cholera were all in Vredefort, and had been treated and discharged.
She encouraged the people to practice excellent hygiene by routinely washing their hands with soap and clean water, boiling the water they drink, and cleaning all their food, including veggies, with clean water.
“We have to work together consistently to curb any potential spread of infections and also make sure that the identified cases get treated immediately,” said Leeto.