Limpopo Health Department working to contain spread of cholera

Reading Time: < 1 minute

The Department of Health in Limpopo says it is working with the Border Management Authorities (BMA) to contain a further spread of cholera in the province. This follows the detection of two cholera cases in the province.

The Department’s spokesperson Niel Shikwambana confirmed that both patients are Zimbabwean nationals who had crossed the border back into South Africa recently.

Zimbabwe is currently battling a cholera outbreak, which has so far claimed more than 200 lives, while in Zambia, about 300 people have died of the disease since October.

“Working with the Border Management Authorities and the National Department of Health, the WHO and other partners, we are making sure that, that kind of work is done at our borders. Most importantly for us to ensure that in terms of surveillance on the ground, we are strong and facility response up to scratch, hence I’ve already indicated that we’ve actually given an alert to all our facilities to say we can’t afford to be complacent when this outbreak is running amok in some of our neighbouring countries,” says Shikwambana.