Thirty-one people had died by the second week of June 2023, and the quality of the water in Hammanskraal, the outbreak’s epicentre, had become a matter for the president. South Africa’s cholera outbreak, which the health department dates from February 1, had by then reached five of the country’s nine provinces.
From two sisters to five provinces
BizNews, citing an update from Health Minister Joe Phaahla, said the trail leads to the first two cases Gauteng reported on February 5. The pair, sisters from Diepsloot in Johannesburg, had travelled to Malawi by coach and returned on January 30.
Then came May. A separate report on the BizNews site said initial outbreaks were disclosed on May 21 in Hammanskraal, near Pretoria, and in the Free State. Cases followed in Limpopo, North West and Mpumalanga. By June 6 the department’s tally was 166 cases confirmed by laboratory and 202 suspected. Gauteng accounted for at least 92 percent of the confirmed total, or 152 cases; the Free State had nine, North West three, and Limpopo and Mpumalanga one each.
Of the 31 deaths, Gauteng accounted for 29, the Free State for one and Mpumalanga for one. Patients in Gauteng ranged in age from one to 91.
The response at Hammanskraal
Jubilee Hospital in Hammanskraal is the epicentre. To take the pressure off it, the department set up a temporary field facility, the Kanana Cholera Treatment Centre, which has run around the clock since May 26. More than 200 people had been seen there by early June. Hospitals in Gauteng and the Free State had seen over 600 people with symptoms that might be cholera.
National, provincial and district response teams were activated and reached over 300 contacts through case finding and contact tracing. UNICEF and Doctors Without Borders donated 3000 hygiene packs for homes and schools in the affected areas. Social Development added counselling and relief parcels for families of the dead. The cause of the outbreaks was still under investigation.
Health spokesperson Foster Mohale urged the public to stay away from food, water and surfaces that are, or might be, contaminated, and to wash hands with soap before preparing food and after using the bathroom. His advice on drinking water was blunt: “Never drink water from unsafe sources such as rivers, dams, streams, unless boiled or disinfected first.”
An apology about water
On Thursday, June 8, President Cyril Ramaphosa visited Hammanskraal and apologised to residents over how bad their water had been. “We are sorry that it has taken the deaths of a number of people,” he said, adding: “Your basic human right of having clean water, we have not lived up to your expectations as the people of Hammanskraal.”
Sources
- Cholera death toll climbs to 31 (IOL)
- South Africa says cholera cases reported in five provinces (BizNews/Bloomberg)
- Update on the response to Cholera Outbreak in South Africa (SA Government, Department of Health)
