The current typhoid fever outbreak cannot be linked to Cape Town’s drinking water, the City of Cape Town says.
Messages on community WhatsApp groups are inaccurately linking the outbreak to tap water, Mayco Member for Water and Sanitation, Zahid Badroodien, stressed.
This as some schools also sent out circulars asking parents to send their children to school with bottled water.
An outbreak of typhoid fever was confirmed by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), IOL reported.
But Badroodien states messages asking the public to not drink tap water is fake news and said the City’s tap water is safe to drink.
“All drinking water samples tested this week complied with the South African National Drinking Water Standard on Acute Health Determinants and pose no health risk to the public,” he said.
Cases of typhoid fever have been confirmed in Gauteng, the Western Cape and the North West.
The Western Cape has reported a combined total of 64 cases in three separate districts – Cape Town Metro health district, the Cape Winelands and the Garden Route.
Enteric fever which includes typhoid fever is a potentially life-threatening infection, said the NICD.
It is usually associated with a lack of clean drinking water and poor sanitation.
But diagnosing it is difficult based on its common symptoms such as a fever, fatigue, headache, nausea and even flu-like symptoms, head of the Centre for Enteric Diseases, Dr Juno Thomas, said.
The bacteria causing typhoid fever is transmitted by the faecal-oral route, that is, through ingesting food or water that has been contaminated with faeces of an infected person, the NICD said.
The most characteristic symptom is a high fever, as well as fatigue, headache, nausea, abdominal pain, and constipation or diarrhoea.