Maokeng residents in Kroonstad feel they are easily vulnerable to the Cholera outbreak after it has dawned on their doorstep.
The Free State Health Department has announced that six people have so far been infected with the disease in the province.
Residents worry that they’ve already been experiencing issues with the water quality in their area and now they have taken extra precautionary measures to ensure they don’t get infected.
VIDEO | Concerns over cholera-related deaths:
Fearful residents
The Cholera bacteria has made its way through the cracks and is now affecting Kroonstad’s Maokeng community.
Residents are still struggling to accept their new reality. Many worry if they’ll be able to survive due to the unstable water conditions in the area.
Their only worry is that will they be able to protect themselves and their relatives from the infectious disease.
“I’m very afraid and my husband went to buy water, but we didn’t know that the water is unsafe, and I also got a stomach bug for a very long time, so now I don’t drink tap water anymore,” says one resident.
Another says: “Personally I’m worried, cholera is not a good thing. At our age, it is not good at all. It’s good for awareness so that all of us might be safe.”
“I don’t want to lie, I’m very afraid because our water sometimes comes out dirty, and you even doubt to do laundry with it.”
Precautionary measures
An emergency meeting by the provincial Health Department was convened after the news of the outbreak broke. Spokesperson Mondli Mvambi says they need to ensure the implementation of precautionary measures to curb the spread of the disease throughout the province commence.
“Well, there are no people who died in the Free State related to Cholera. We’re doing everything in our power. We’re supported by the World Health Organisation in our endeavours; we’re not doing this on our own. We’re supported by the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, so the integrity of work that is happening there is at its highest level. So whatever outcome that we come and report is not a figment of our own imagination but it’s an outcome of a scientific process.”
The department revealed that there are also 76 cases of diarrhoea that have been reported in some parts of Parys and Vredefort.
So far, the department has disclosed that they don’t know the source of the disease.
The department also indicates that they have been closely monitoring the six people that are infected and they’re satisfied with their progress.
It has further requested residents to continuously wash their hands with running water and to boil it before consumption.
