The Limpopo Health Department says it is trying to contain the spread of cholera after two migrant workers at Alldays tested positive for the water-borne disease.
Officials say the second patient who tested positive for cholera had just returned from neighbouring Zimbabwe, where an outbreak was declared in September.
A team has been dispatched to the farming community to conduct further tests.
The cases of cholera were detected separately. Both are Zimbabwean nationals and had recently visited their home country. The first local case was reported about two weeks ago, when the patient returned to Alldays.
Migrant worker, Vongani Rupanga, says his colleague did not go through border control, but instead crossed the Limpopo River.
“They were talking that they once contacted some fruits at Beit Bridge, mangoes, then they crossed the river and came to South Africa. Then after two weeks, that man started having some pains … some stomach pains. He was vomiting and having diarrhea and as time went he started to be busy (sic). He can’t walk.”
Rupanga and a few other farmworkers became exposed to the first patient before his symptoms started to show. She says on the day he became gravely ill they tried to get him to the nearby clinic.
Rupanga says they also requested to be screened, fearing that they may have contracted the disease.
Reports say more than 50 people died from cholera before Zimbabwe could declare another outbreak. The situation in Zimbabwe has prompted the Limpopo Health Department to intensify its efforts to contain the disease.
MEC Phophi Ramathuba says more screenings will be conducted at the border during the festive season.
“Farmworkers – mainly coming from Zimbabwe – they’ll be going home. So, those that do not use our port health system of the border or the Beit Bridge border or the legitimate way of entering the country, we will miss those cases and that is our biggest worry. Just having one case, for me, I define it as an outbreak because that one case if I don’t define it as an outbreak it might spread.”
The first patient has since been discharged after receiving treatment. The second patient is still under observation.
In 2008, the province had one of the deadliest outbreaks of cholera, which mainly affected areas such as Musina.
The department says it has commissioned the testing of local water sources in Alldays. Three other samples from migrant workers have been taken for testing and results are expected this week.
Watch related videos below:
