Cape Town - At the start of the month, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) declared a cholera outbreak in Gauteng, following an increase in the number of positive cases identified in the Gauteng province.
As at February 28, 2023 six confirmed cholera cases were reported in Gauteng, resulting in one death. The NICD said all the affected persons were adults aged 19 to 44 years.
The first three patients had travelled to Malawi, with cases four and five locally acquired infections. The latter had not travelled and were not linked to any of the other cases or to each other, and do not reside nor work in the same area, the NICD said.
The sixth case is newly reported and under investigation.
“While there is an ongoing risk of imported cases following travel from other African countries experiencing cholera outbreaks – especially Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe – the detection of locally acquired cases was critical to guide public health investigations and timely interventions to interrupt cholera transmission in affected communities,” the NICD said.
Meanwhile, Western Cape Health Department spokesperson Byron la Hoe said there were four laboratory confirmed measles cases, all reported in the Cape Town metro district.
The NICD confirmed a measles outbreak in the Cape Metro on February 20.
“These cases involve children aged 2, 4, 10, and a 58-year-old respectively, and they are all epidemiologically unlinked (they have not been exposed to a confirmed measles case or had the same exposure as a confirmed measles case),” La Hoe said.
In recent weeks, there has been an increase in suspected measles cases, especially in the Cape Metro, with people urged to vaccinate children under 15.