The Department of Health and Social Development in Limpopo said the outbreak of malaria was under control. This comes after 440 malaria cases were reported at various hospitals in the high-risk areas of the Vhembe and Mopani District during the past three weeks.

According to the spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Development, Mr Cecil Motsepe, three people have already died of the disease.

He said that the increase of malaria cases has been recorded at Donald Fraser, Musina, Malamulele, Nkhensani and Maphuta Malatji hospitals. He added that they had malaria control programmes in place to control and reduce infections.

“We are currently spraying households in the affected areas, and for this season we are targeting 985 000 houses to be sprayed. We are proud to announce that the programme is progressing smoothly and we have already sprayed more than 540 000 houses,” said Motsepe.

He added that although the increase did not constitute an epidemic yet, the department was concerned about the latest development. He mentioned, however, that the department was in control of the situation and that they were trying by all means to monitor the situation closely in an effort to prevent it from spreading to other parts of the province.