Issued by: Mpumalanga Department of Health and Social Services
19 September 2005
It is once more with great sadness and sorrow to announce that a fourth victim has died as a result of the Typhoid outbreak in Delmas. A 29-year-old woman, Sisakhele Nkabinde died in Delmas hospital on Friday.
In this regard, Mpumalanga MEC for Health and Social Services Mr. Pogisho Pasha would like to extend his heartfelt condolences to the family, friends and relatives of the deceased.
To date, we have noted a satisfactory decrease on the daily intake of patients suffering from diarrhoea. This can be attributed to an effective awareness campaigns carried out by our health promotions workers and environmental officers in the community of Delmas. We had 145 cases on Friday, 72 on Saturday and 31 on Sunday.
On the cases of people with symptoms of typhoid, we now stand at 526 with 69 of this number hospitalised. Since Friday, we had 11 new admissions with 19 discharges.
Investigations on the cause of the outbreak under the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry are on-going. How ever we have taken note of recent media reports about utterances attributed to the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC). W e find the statements very unfortunate, baseless and extremely irresponsible.
We urge all concerned parties to complement efforts already undertaken by the National, Provincial and Local government, business and media in an on-going effort to provide moral, financial and material support to the community of Delmas.
The provincial government will continue to do whatever is necessary to provide relive to the community of Delmas and the affected families.
Contact:
Mpho Gabashane 082 802 4937