JOHANNESBURG
(Reuters) - South Africa's cholera epidemic, which has claimed
100 lives in one province alone, is likely to worsen, health officials
said on Thursday.
"Cholera
is more likely to spread rather than diminish in the next few
months and new areas of KwaZulu-Natal (will) certainly become
affected," the province's Department of Health said in a
statement.
It said the
death toll in the eastern province, by far the worst affected
area of the country, now stood at 100, with six deaths reported
in the last 24 hours. The outbreak was first detected in August
last year.
It said the
death rate from the disease in the province was 0.24 percent.
There have been more than 42,000 reported cases.
"The
next two to three months is cholera season and a decline can only
be expected towards the middle or end of (the southern hemisphere's)
autumn," the department said.
"Heavy
rains are expected throughout KwaZulu-Natal and this can be expected
to worsen rather than improve the situation," it added.
The national
Ministry of Provincial and Local Government said several national
ministers met on Thursday with their provincial health and local
government counterparts to discuss progress in fighting the disease.
It said the
approach being followed by all nine provinces included regular
testing of water sources and tracing the homes of infected people.
It also said the provinces were working to identify areas that
are at risk.
"...these
are areas that lack proper water and sanitation facilities and
where poverty is rife," it said.
There have
been a few reported cases outside of KwaZulu-Natal, but the ministry
said measures for prevention and treatment were being put into
place in high-risk areas.
The cholera
epidemic in South Africa is one of the many legacies of extreme
poverty that still scars the country.
Almost seven
years after its first democratic elections, many South Africans,
mostly poor blacks in rural areas, still lack access to clean
and safe water supplies.
If the disease
spreads more widely, analysts fear it could affect the economy,
already suffering from a devastating AIDS epidemic.
Cholera has
also flared in other countries in the region and the World Health
Organisation is organising a meeting of southern African states
in March to map out a plan to halt its spread.
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