Villagers who fell ill home from hospital

Shushu Village residents admitted at Grey and Bhisho hospitals after falling ill last week, were discharged over the weekend. 

Provincial health spokesman Siyanda Manana said the more than 30 residents were discharged on Sunday.

The villagers were admitted to the hospitals on Thursday after suffering from stomach cramps, vomiting, diarrhoea, headaches, high temperature and weakness.

Twenty-four people had been admitted to Grey Hospital after a family of five from that village were taken to hospital displaying similar symptoms earlier that week.

That Thursday, following a door-to-door visit in the village by the department, a further 13 were found to have similar symptoms and taken to Bhisho Hospital.

Manana said it was still unclear what had caused the outbreak, and the investigation was ongoing. Samples taken of some of the food and water the residents consumed had not yielded any results.

On realising the problem last week, the department activated its outbreak team, which spent a number of days with the community trying to figure out what the cause was.

Earlier suspicions indicated the drinking water might have been contaminated. However, this has still not been confirmed.

The department had sent water tanks to the village following the outbreak.

The Tshemese family, from the village, saw nine of their 21 family members living on their homestead affected by the outbreak.

On Thursday none knew what the cause was and were slowly recovering.

They could also not say why the others were not affected because they all ate and drank the same food.

Two children aged four and nine were also affected by the outbreak.

Preliminary findings on the day showed older people had been worst affected by the mystery illness.

Early suspicions were that one of two water supply pipes from a borehole was contaminated, but there was no conclusive evidence.

Thembeka Tshemese, who was not affected by the outbreak, said they had enjoyed running water for over a decade and had never seen anything like this before.

She said all they had consumed at the time of the outbreak was mnqusho (samp and beans), and amarhewu, a drink brewed with mealie meal and yeast. These were among the samples taken for testing.

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