Field hospitals to cater for number of cholera infections

IN A BID to mitigate against and manage the spread of cholera in the township of Hammanskraal, Gauteng Health has set up field hospitals.

With more people continuing to present with symptoms in the township north of Pretoria, temporary tents have been set up by the Department of Health to attend to residents presenting with symptoms of dehydration, vomiting, and diarrhoea.

Upon arrival, patients are reportedly being treated through oral hydration or intravenous hydration, with critical patients being taken to hospitals across Tshwane.

The department said that as of Saturday, there were 215 people at the Jubilee District Hospital in the area, with another 23 transferred to Garankuwa’s Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital.

On a positive note, health officials reported that fewer residents had presented at the hospital, with 27 patients having recovered and been discharged.

To date, laboratory-confirmed tests have confirmed 48 cases, with 75 patients admitted to the local hospital.

While efforts continue to be implemented to curb the spread, the Tshwane Municipality has urged residents to report people selling untested water in the area.

City spokesperson Selby Bokaba said the city was alerted to water tankers roaming the community and selling water to residents.

“Community members are being cautioned not to buy or drink the water from these tankers as it has not been tested and is not declared safe for drinking.

“The city provides water to formal and informal areas free of charge. The water provided from the city’s authorised tankers has been declared safe for drinking after a series of tests conducted confirmed that it does not have cholera,” he said.

Bokaba said that the Tshwane Metro Police Department had been activated and would conduct stops and searches of trucks transporting water without a permit.

Residents were urged to write down the licence registration of the tankers and report them to the metro police.

FEARS are mounting that life-threatening diseases such as polio, that was eradicated for decades, could return because of the immunisation gap caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The World Health Organization sounded the alarm after cases of polio, which had been eradicated in 1989, were recorded in neighbouring countries.

This comes as Hammanskraal, just north of the country’s capital Pretoria, is battling a cholera outbreak with the death toll climbing past 20 as of Friday.

“It is a sad state of affairs that we are catering for outbreaks of diseases (from) … the middle ages. South Africa is the richest economy on the African continent,” said Jo Barnes, senior lecturer emeritus at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of Stellenbosch.

The WHO said if the immunisation gap continued unabated, it would create a playground for vaccine-treatable diseases that could be fatal.

Cholera, measles, diphtheria, and mumps were some of the illnesses that have cropped up across the country, in some cases causing deaths.

This week, the Western Cape Health Department confirmed a case of diphtheria in a 3-year-old who died last month. Another case was detected in KwaZulu-Natal.

The bacteria that causes diphtheria was first identified by Edwin Klebs in 1882. The vaccine is given during childhood.

Dr Simangele Mthethwa and Dr Joseph Wamala of the WHO Emergency Preparedness Response Team (EPR) were concerned because any disease could become an outbreak.

“We should be worried about all vaccine-preventable diseases for which our children are not vaccinated against because all have a potential of spiralling into outbreaks,” they said in a statement.

Minister of Health Joe Phaala called for vigilance after the detection of diphtheria cases, stating that there was a shortage of vaccines.

Phaala said diphtheria was an uncommon, but vaccine-preventable serious infection caused by a toxin-producing bacterium called Corynebacterium diphtheria.

Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Shabir Madhi, and Professor of Vaccinology at Wits, Professor Shabir Madhi, said all children were meant to get at least four doses of the diphtheria vaccine in the first two years of life and a booster dose at school entry.

“Unfortunately, around 80% of children receive all their vaccines in the first two years, and less than 20% receive the booster dose at school entry,” said Madhi.