Johannesburg - South African authorities reported new cholera deaths in the province surrounding Johannesburg, indicating that the spread of the disease from Zimbabwe is becoming more pronounced. One person had died of cholera over the weekend, bringing the province's death count to three, Chika Asomugha, spokesman for the health department of Gauteng Province, told the South African Press Association (SAPA) on Monday.
Gauteng, home to both the city's economic centre of Johannesburg and the national capital of Pretoria, now has 21 positively identified cases of cholera, with the heaviest concentration in the Johannesburg district.
The disease is also making gains in the Limpopo Province, which borders Zimbabwe. Cholera has reached epidemic levels in Zimbabwe, where an ongoing financial and political crisis has left authorities unable to combat the disease or even implement basic hygienic standards which could normally curb the disease's spread.
According to Limpopo Province spokesman Phuthi Seloba, as quoted by SAPA, the disease has now spread to the province's most vulnerable areas, with new cases reported almost every day.
The province's death toll has held steady at eight. But the border town of Musina has recorded 15 new cases since Sunday, bringing the total number there to 909, including five people who remain hospitalized.
Other parts of the province, including Botlokwa, Madimbo, Dilokong and Knobel have also recorded new cases.
Seloba said health officials were finding it hard to spread awareness about the disease.
"We also still have some people who insist that they are ill because they ate meat from a sick cow when told they have cholera," he said. "This is the kind of thinking that we are working against."
The United Nations has reported more than 1,100 deaths and 24,000 infected from cholera in Zimbabwe.
Health officials are worried that there could be further outbreaks of the disease in both Zimbabwe and South Africa over the Christmas holidays, when Zimbabweans who live in South Africa return home to visit relatives, perhaps risking infection and the further spread of the disease.
