Cholera outbreak | Treatment site to be opened in Kanana

JOHANNESBURG - The Gauteng Health Department is setting up a treatment site in the Kanana area of Hammanskraal where most cholera cases have been reported.

Twenty-two people have now died from cholera in South Africa -- 21 in Hammanskraal, and one in Vredefort in the Free State.

Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko says a war room has also been activated to curb the spread.

READ: Cholera death toll rises to 22

"We'll be opening a site in Kanana area because that's where 90 percent of patients come from.

"So we're opening the site there to make sure that everyone who feels a little bit dehydrated or has a running stomach will get to be checked on site, not to wait for them to come to the hospital," she said.

"But even in the hospital now, we have a specific area that we've designed for them to immediately attend to patients and not wait until it's late."

READ: NICD investigating cholera in other provinces

Nkomo-Ralehoko said comorbidities are being blamed for the high death rate.

She says it's also leading to recovery delays.

"The other thing that we've picked up as we check the files of each patient that we have admitted is that some of them have underlying issues, like some of the comorbidities.

"So when cholera gets to them, it finds them very weak and some of them are leaving us because of that," she said.