Cholera-hit countries to formulate regional strategy

Representatives from Swaziland, South Africa and Mozambique are to meet in the Mozambican capital Maputo next week to try and formulate a regional strategy to stop the spread of cholera. The disease has killed hundreds and infected thousands of people in the region since the epidemic began late last year. Mozambique’s Deputy Health Minister Aida Limbombo told journalists in Maputo that health experts of the three Southern African countries had agreed in principle to hold the meeting next week. On Friday WHO’s Director for Southern Africa, Welile Shasha, told IRIN that so far 69 people had died in South Africa’s eastern KwaZulu Natal province with an estimated 23,000 people infected. On Thursday, health officials in Gauteng Province said that Juskei river, north of Johannesburg had tested positive for cholera. Shasha said that the South African government had “done very well” in containing the disease, but the recent outbreak highlighted the need for rapid development in the rural areas. “This has created an impetus to speed up rural development. I am happy that it has now entered the arena of water and sanitation and moved away from simply being a health care delivery issue.” On Thursday the Minister for Water Affairs and Forestry Ronnie Kasrils announced that the government would be implementing new measures to combat the disease. He said that the government would speed up the provision of clean water and proper sanitation. Over two million people in KwaZulu Natal do not have access to safe drinking water and a further three million are without proper sanitation facilities. Kasrils said the province would receive an estimated US $85 million over the next three years to provide clean water and proper sanitation to people in rural areas. Shasha told IRIN that in regard to the rest of the region, he was “hesitant to say that the situation was very serious as this was the cholera season in large parts”. Mozambican health authorities said this week that Mozambique had recorded 33 deaths from cholera since September last year, compared to a previous outbreak which claimed a total of 252 lives following the devastating floods in February and March last year. Swazi health authorities said that Swaziland hospitals have also been forced to set up emergency tented cholera wards to cope with an increased number of rural diarrhoea cases that resulted in eight deaths over the past three weeks.