Health and agriculture authorities in KwaZulu-Natal are on high alert for local cases of Rift Valley Fever, which has already claimed one life and infected several other people and livestock in the Free State and Northern Cape.

The Health Department has issued notifications to all its hospitals on how to treat patients suspected of having the mosquito-borne virus, and farmers have vaccinated cattle against it.

As many as 15 farms - 14 in the Free State and one in the Northern Cape - reported laboratory-confirmed animal cases, and extensive livestock deaths. The epidemic is said to possibly become the first major outbreak of the fever in the country in 40 years.

Source: IOL