Cape Town – The latest report released by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) confirmed six cases of cholera in Gauteng.
Cholera is a bacterial disease, usually spread in water, that causes severe diarrhoea and dehydration. However, the disease is easily treatable.
According to NICD spokesperson Sinenhlanhla Jimoh, the patients who have contracted the water-borne disease are aged between 19 and 44.
Jimoh said there have been no reports of cases in other provinces.
“The first three cases were imported or import-related cases following travel to Malawi. Cases four and five acquired infection locally; they had not travelled, had no links to imported cases or to each other, and don’t reside or work in the same area. These two are classified as indigenous cases.
“The sixth case is newly reported and under investigation,” Jimoh said.
According to the NICD, by definition, the detection of locally-acquired cholera cases is a confirmed cholera outbreak.
The sources of the infection in the cases detected locally are not known at this stage.
“Whilst there is an ongoing risk for imported cases following travel from other African countries currently experiencing cholera outbreaks (especially Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe), the detection of locally-acquired cases is critical to guide public health investigations and timely interventions that effectively interrupt cholera transmission in affected communities,” Jimoh said.
The NICD is urging healthcare workers and laboratorians nationwide to consider and test for cholera in people with acute watery diarrhoea.
robin.francke@inl.co.za
IOL