When a measles outbreak was reported in October last year, three cases were detected in the Sekhukhune area in Limpopo. Soon afterwards, more cases were detected in all the provinces of the country with 727 confirmed cases in March 2023. Since then, Limpopo has not seen any improvement as 17 new laboratory-confirmed measles cases were detected across the country and 14 were from Limpopo.

VIRUS TRANSMISSION IN LIMPOPO

The National Institute For Communicable Diseases (NICD) said the measles virus transmission in the Waterberg district in Limpopo continues in the 5 to 14-year age group. At the district level, the reproduction number as of the end of May was estimated to be 1.1 in Waterberg and 1.2 in Greater Sekhukhune suggesting that infection incidence may be increasing however the small number of cases overall leads to substantial uncertainty in these estimates. Currently, there are 482 cases of laboratory-confirmed measles reported in Limpopo with the majority of the measles cases reported in the Waterberg, Greater Sekhukhune, and Mopani districts. Sekhukhune district reported 139 cases, Vhembe district reported 35 cases and Capricorn district reported eight cases. Dilokong Hospital reported 56 and Mahubahube Clinic reported 35 cases in Greater Sekhukhune. 56 cases have been reported from Witpoort Hospital in Lephalale municipality. The age of measles cases across Limpopo ranged from 4 months to 45 years but mostly affected the age group 5-9 years.

MEASLES SUMMARY

Since the first case was reported, NICD has tested 6 309 serum samples for measles. There are currently 1067 (17%) confirmed positive cases in the past weeks and confirmed measles cases detected across the country, of which the majority were from Limpopo. In the week ending 04 June, Limpopo province reported a total of 12 new measles cases, while a sporadic case was reported in Gauteng. No new cases were reported in Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape, North West, Northern Cape, and Free State province last reported cases.