Free State Health MEC Mathabo Leeto says the cholera outbreak is currently under control in the Free State. One person has died in the province from the water born bacterial disease. The death toll in Hammanskraal stands at 23.
Leeto made the comments while officially opening the state of the art Winnie Madikizela Mandela clinic in Rouxville in the south of the province.
The MEC says they are working with environmental affairs to ensure that water is safe for consumption in the province. She says eight other people who contracted cholera have been cleared of the disease.
“We are stabilising the issue of cholera outbreak in the province because up until now we only have one person who has passed on. But I think we are also concerned because there’s a lot of people that are going to hospitals because of diarrhoea in the area of Ngwathe especially Vredefort and the Department of Water Affairs is also part of our rapid response team they are working on water, including Cogta. Because remember our responsibility is to cure patients. But we are also doing awareness campaigns in that area.”
Members of the public with cholera symptoms urged to visit healthcare centre:
Meanwhile, 23 more Cholera cases have been recorded in Hammanskraal, north of Pretoria in the last 24 hours. This as the City of Tshwane is scrambling to find the source of the disease in the area.
The City has now roped in the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the Medical Research Council and the Water Institute to assist in establishing the source.
The City’s Themba water treatment plant, its fire hydrants, and water tankers have all tested negative for Cholera.
Briefing the media in Pretoria on Tuesday, the executive mayor Cilliers Brink says they are not giving up on finding the source.
“So, the important point is not to simply give up because if cases are rising we have to determine the source. Whatever the expertise, we are determined to tap into that resource and to have them assist us to say this is what you’re doing right and what you are doing wrong and help correlate or resolve, were certainly not giving up.”
Mayor Cilliers Brink update on Tshwane’s cholera outbreak:
