The death toll in the Eastern Cape's winter circumcision season has risen to 24, the provincial health department said on Wednesday. Spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said four youths had died in the Eastern Pondoland region in the past 24 hours. Two of them had been attending legal initiation schools, the others illegal schools.
The situation in the region had prompted local state doctors to go out in teams with police to treat youths at the schools, Kupelo said.
"They say they can't watch these boys dying any longer. The situation is very bad in that part of the province."
The department will also send more staff from Bhisho to monitor schools. Kupelo said there were currently 26 youths admitted to St Elizabeth's hospital in Lusikisiki, two of them in high care. There were four at Holy Cross in Flagstaff, and one at St Patrick's in Mbizana. A youth had died at St Patrick's on Tuesday night. At St Barnabas in Libode, there were 16 admissions, two of them in high care. Three of the 16 had lost the tips of their penises to gangrene. There were ten at Mthatha General Hospital and another ten at the Nelson Mandela Academic hospital in the town, two of whom were in intensive care.
One youth died at Nelson Mandela Academic hospital on Tuesday night. Circumcision-related deaths are usually as a result of septicaemia from infected wounds, or dehydration, which happens when initiates are denied water by their carers. Eleven unregistered traditional surgeons and nurses have been arrested this season.
Male circumcision, widely practised among the Xhosa, is seen as a rite of passage to manhood. Though the province passed a circumcision act in 2001, researchers found in 2007 that circumcision-related complications and fatalities had remained virtually unchanged in the six years that followed. They said one of the main problems was the perception that government interference in the ritual was undesirable and the fact that a stigma was attached to non-completion of the procedure.
Issued by: Department of Health, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
1 July 2009
Source: Department of Health, Eastern Cape Provincial Government (http://www.ecdoh.gov.za)
