NICD declares measles spike all but over

EVEN with six cases of measles remaining, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has declared the outbreak of measles effectively over.

As of Wednesday, the Institute reported that the outbreak of measles, which began in 2022 across a number of provinces in the country, had been narrowed down to only four provinces to date.

Laboratory samples tested confirmed three cases in Limpopo, while the Free State, Gauteng, and the North West have one case each.

Cases in Limpopo were detected in the Waterberg and the Greater Sekhukhune districts.

Although they reported that not all provinces had achieved the criteria to declare the outbreak over, they confirmed that the outbreak was “effectively over”.

This was despite indications that all provinces where the outbreak was declared, particularly Limpopo and Gauteng provinces, which were the drivers of the outbreak, had started reporting only a few sporadic cases starting from week 27.

According to the NICD, since the start of the outbreak in 2022, 1 115 laboratory-confirmed cases have been reported from eight provinces in the country.

Limpopo reported 515 cases: 112 cases in Mpumalanga, 218 in the North West, 183 in Gauteng, 33 in the Free State, 18 in the Western Cape, 29 in KwaZulu-Natal, and only seven cases in the Northern Cape.

Despite the number of measles cases declining significantly, the NICD has reiterated the need for strengthening surveillance measures to ensure sporadic cases are not missed.

The Star