SA on cholera watch at Beitbridge

The South African National Institute for Communicable Diseases is monitoring the Zimbabwe border after two people contracted cholera nearby.

Zimbabwean newspaper The Herald reported that two children, aged five and 10, had been quarantined with cholera at Beitbridge District Hospital.

Six other cases had been recorded, in Mudzi and Chiredzi, according to the Zimbabwean Broadcasting Corporation.

The deputy director of the communicable diseases institute, Lucille Blumberg, said though cholera had been recorded in Zimbabwe for a couple of years, the last incidence of the disease in South Africa was last year.

The cholera epidemic in Mozambique, which broke out after widespread flooding, has risen by almost 50% in two weeks to 41. And the number of new cholera infections has more than doubled over the past fortnight.

Mozambican Ministry of Health spokesman Quinhas Fernandes said 4518 cases of cholera and 41 deaths had been recorded since December 25.

Authorities said the region hardest hit was western Tete Province, which borders Zimbabwe and Malawi. More than 1500 cases had been recorded in its capital city in the past two months, and the pace of infections was quickening.