Posted on 09/10/2005 12:12:31 PM PDT by LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget
JOHANNESBURG, Sept. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- The number of confirmed typhoid cases in Delmas, Mpumalanga province, South Africa, rose to 100 on Friday, but the situation was gradually being brought under control, health officials said.
John Mlangeni, spokesman for the provincial health department, said "everyone has clean water now and if precautions are taken, and water is purified, we are convinced the situation will clear up."
He said up to 700 people were now suffering from diarrhea but despite burgeoning figures, proper management and precautions should see the outbreak in Delmas brought under control.
People were streaming into local clinics where extra nurses had been deployed, according to a report by South African Press Association.
Most of the sufferers were being sent to hospitals in Witbank and Gauteng.
"Depending on our reports, a proposal has been mooted for the South African National Defense Force to establish a field hospital in the area," said Mlangeni.
He said indications from tests carried out on the water supply showed that the whole underground lake under Delmas was infected with e-coli.
The lake feeds reservoirs, many of which tested positive for fecal matter.
Clean water had been sent into the area, with additional water being donated by Rand Water.
The health department already printed pamphlets - spelling out the symptoms, infectious agent, mode of transmission, incubation stage and the preventative measures that can be followed - to be handed out to the public.
The education program started on Friday and would run for two weeks. Enditem
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