SA battles typhoid outbreak

JOHANNESBURG – Almost 400 people in a South African town have reported typhoid-like symptoms after drinking contaminated water, a local health official said yesterday, with 18 cases confirmed.

Officials were sending at least 100 extra medical staff to the town of Delmas, 70 km east of Johannesburg, warning residents to boil or purify water and report any diarrhoea or fever symptoms. “We suspect it is the water supply,” said Careen Swart, deputy director of environmental affairs for Mpumalanga provincial health department.”It comes from an underground lake, some of which has become polluted.Some of the water is chlorinated but some goes to houses direct and untreated.”Typhoid – a bacterial disease spread through poor food hygiene and contaminated water – occasionally breaks out in South Africa’s poorer townships, where water supplies are still basic more than a decade after the end of white rule.Initial cases had been from a squatter camp on the outskirts of Delmas but the illness had since spread to both the formal townships and affluent parts of the town.Swart said all residents were being encouraged to improve hygiene and wash their hands before eating.”It’s not just the water now,” Swart said.”It can also be in food such as salads.It has an incubation period of four weeks so we will have to keep monitoring for a long time.”- Nampa-Reuters”We suspect it is the water supply,” said Careen Swart, deputy director of environmental affairs for Mpumalanga provincial health department.”It comes from an underground lake, some of which has become polluted.Some of the water is chlorinated but some goes to houses direct and untreated.”Typhoid – a bacterial disease spread through poor food hygiene and contaminated water – occasionally breaks out in South Africa’s poorer townships, where water supplies are still basic more than a decade after the end of white rule.Initial cases had been from a squatter camp on the outskirts of Delmas but the illness had since spread to both the formal townships and affluent parts of the town.Swart said all residents were being encouraged to improve hygiene and wash their hands before eating.”It’s not just the water now,” Swart said.”It can also be in food such as salads.It has an incubation period of four weeks so we will have to keep monitoring for a long time.”- Nampa-Reuters