The WHO has classified the global resurgence of cholera as a grade 3 emergency, its highest internal health emergency level.
In South Africa, the two cases had been “imported from Zimbabwe”, said Deputy Health Minister Sibongiseni Dhlomo this week, after a 43-year-old male patient was treated and discharged from Musina Hospital, while another remains in isolation in hospital.
The second man who was admitted to Hellen Franz Hospital in the Capricorn District Municipality, was in a stable condition, reports News24. He had returned to South Africa last Wednesday from a Zimbabwean trip.
“His contacts were identified, and the local outbreak response team has been activated to conduct further investigations and provide health education to contacts,” said Dhlomo.
South Africa “remains on high alert of possible imported cholera cases” from Zimbabwe, where an outbreak has so far claimed more than 200 lives.
Cholera cases soared last year, according to the WHO, which recorded 4 000 cholera deaths and 667 000 cases globally, and which has classified the global resurgence as a grade 3 emergency, its highest internal health emergency level.
Worst hit were Malawi and Haiti, where the number of deaths reached 1 771 and 1 156 respectively.
“The unprecedented rate of cases and deaths is terrifying, and utterly overwhelming the health systems of these countries,” said Machinda Marongwe, programme director of Oxfam in Southern Africa. “The outbreak is spiralling into an uncontrollable health crisis.”
Since the start of this year, at least 30 other countries have reported cases: Zambia has recorded 7 500 new cases since October and saw 500 new cases and 17 deaths in just 24 hours this week, reports The Guardian.
Zambian authorities have urged people to move out of towns and back to rural areas as schools remain closed to prevent further spread, while reports of unrest fuelled by disinformation about the outbreak have emerged from Mozambique.
At least three people died during a violent outburst in northern Mozambique this week when attackers torched buildings amid accusations that the government had deliberately spread the disease.
“Governments and agencies in the region need immediate funding to implement activities and projects to help improve people’s hygiene and access to clean water, since these two factors are key in the fight against the spread,” Marongwe said.
Given the spread of the outbreak to new countries and global shortage of cholera vaccines, the WHO said it continued to assess the risk level of the disease as “very high”.
Earlier last year Gavi, the international vaccine alliance, said that it expected the global shortage to last at least until 2025.
The Guardian – Cholera cases soar globally amid shortage of vaccines –
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100 dead as cholera rages through Zimbabwe