The bulk of these cases remains in the Durban metro. 

The disease usually presents as a mild viral infection, accompanied by blisters on the hands, feet and mouth and predominately affecting young children. Doctor Vuyiswa Khumalo is from the National Institute for Communicable Disease (NICD). 

She says while rural communities are less likely to be affected by the disease, in areas where people do not have access to clean running water, they are advised to purify their water..

"I don't see it happening that those areas can be getting these cases as they are out of the way, not close areas such as the eThekwini district where the majority of cases are happening. However, that is not to say travel between those kind of areas and metropolitan areas cannot occur. For those areas they will have to look at alternative methods of purifying and disinfecting using beach or boiling water to get it clean."


--SABC--