Pretoria - The City of Tshwane has assured residents that there was currently no measles outbreak in the city, expressing concern about the National Institute for Communicable Diseases’ (NICD) recent declaration of a measles outbreak in South Africa.
This follows the reporting of cases in the five provinces of Limpopo, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, the Free State and North West.
Since May last year, 14 laboratory-confirmed cases have been recorded in Pretoria.
By June, four cases of measles had been detected in the province, and, according to Health Department spokesperson Foster Mohale, three of these cases were from individuals living in Pretoria, while the fourth case was from a person in the West Rand.
He said the four had been notified after ultimate confirmation through laboratory testing conducted by the NICD.
The NICD said a total of 169 cases of laboratory-confirmed measles had been reported by December 7 across the five provinces.
It said laboratory-confirmed measles cases increased in Limpopo and Mpumalanga to 98 and 50 cases, respectively.
“The age of cases across the country ranges from 2 months to 42 years; 44% of cases were in the 5-9 years age group and 28% in the 1 to 4 years age group. Of the 169 cases, 125 had an unknown vaccination status, 18 were vaccinated and 26 were unvaccinated.”
Tshwane MMC for Health Gertruida Marx said the City was monitoring measles cases closely by implementing outbreak response teams.
“We are in a state of readiness to manage the situation and mitigate the spread as far as possible. Since December 28 the City of Tshwane has implemented a measles vaccination campaign at all our 24 primary health care clinics. This is a preventive measure targeting children from the age of 6 months to 15 years, regardless of their vaccination status.”
She added that measles was a highly contagious, but preventable disease.
Symptoms included fever and a rash, cough, conjunctivitis (red eyes) and coryza (runny nose). Complications of measles can include diarrhoea, dehydration, brain infection (encephalitis), blindness and death.
Complications are more serious in those who catch measles as young infants (under 2 years of age) and in children who are malnourished.
“In order to minimise the spread of measles parents and caregivers are encouraged to take a measles vaccination as it is the best preventive measure. Given the potential seriousness of the disease, it is imperative that childhood vaccinations are kept up to date,” said Marx.
Pretoria News