The NICD said cases of measles were declining nationally. Picture: Lindsey Wasson/Reuters
Cape Town - The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) on Tuesday said cases of measles were declining nationally.
This was after a measles outbreak was declared across all provinces except for the Eastern Cape.
Over the past few weeks, there have been eight laboratory-confirmed measles cases detected across the country, of which the majority, five, were from Limpopo.
Since October last year, nearly 1 000 measles cases were recorded.
Limpopo recorded 410 cases, followed by North West with 216, Gauteng with 166, Mpumalanga with 108, 29 in the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal with 20 cases.
The Western Cape recorded 14 cases, and the Northern Cape, 7.
According to the NICD, the percentage of samples testing positive decreased from 20% of 83 samples tested to 14% of 53 samples tested.
No new cases were reported in all provinces.
The NICD reported that it tested about 5 853 serum samples for measles epidemiological since last year, of which 976 cases were confirmed positive.
“About 970 laboratory-confirmed cases were reported from eight provinces with declared measles outbreaks. The measles strain detected in Limpopo province and North West province is genotype D8 which is similar to the strain in Zimbabwe in the 2022 outbreak.
“In the provinces where an outbreak has been declared, the most affected age groups are still the 5 to 9-year-olds with a considerable proportion of cases reported among the 1-4 and 10-14 age groups. A measles outbreak is classified as three or more confirmed laboratory measles cases reported within 30 days of onset of disease, in a district,” NICD said.
Cape Times
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