South African health authorities on Thursday announced the country’s first cholera death in more than a decade.
Cholera is not endemic in South Africa, which has since early February recorded five cases.
The first two of those were imported from Malawi which is buckling under its deadliest cholera outbreak in decades.
The victim in South Africa is a 24-year-old man from Benoni, a district east of Johannesburg.
He had no history of travel outside the country and died in hospital on Sunday, according to a statement from Health Minister Joe Phaahla’s office.
Laboratory results later confirmed he had cholera.
South Africa last suffered an outbreak of the waterborne disease between 2008 and 2009, when around 12,000 cases were recorded after a huge outbreak in neighbouring Zimbabwe.
This time the disease spread from Malawi where at least 1,400 people have died out of nearly 45,000 cases reported since March…
