By Mpume Madlala and Sapa-AFP
The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health's communicable disease unit has dispatched medical personnel to the Welbedacht area in Chatsworth, Durban, to find seven children who are ill at home and feared to have contracted potentially deadly meningitis.
The children were part of a singing group in the area that included Vuyolwethu Bam, 12, who died on Friday from meningococcal meningitis. The parents told the Daily News they believe the illness is a result of witchcraft.
The death of Bam is the second fatality from the province, and a KZN woman died in Cape Town at the weekend from the disease.
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Bam's best friend, Pamela Ntleke, is in hospital where tests are being done. Doctors suspect that Ntleke may have cryptococcal meningitis, which is not as dangerous as meningococcal meningitis.
Two weeks ago, the disease unit travelled to Empangeni after one person died from meningitis and another was hospitalised.
Four more cases were confirmed in Gauteng, where two people have already died from the disease.
The UN Children's Fund (Unicef) on Wednesday reported a meningitis outbreak has killed 931 people in four West African countries since January, with most of the deaths occurring in Nigeria.
In KZN the department of communicable diseases was urged to search for the seven children by Ntleke's mother Nosizo Tshotsholo, after she expressed her concern that the other seven children have not been taken to hospital even though they were exhibiting similar symptoms as her daughter.
The chief technical advisor for the communicable and TB control department, Bruce Margot, has dispatched medical personnel into the area. He said from Wednesday morning there were already health care workers making door-to-door visits in the area.
However, Margot said this morning that paramedics last night had difficulty in finding the homes of the children because there are no street names in the area. "This morning the district guys will be out there again and we are confident that we will find these children," he said.
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