With hundreds of thousands of pupils having reported back to school for the start of the 2023 academic year on Wednesday, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) is calling for extra vigilance amid rising cases of measles.
In a statement on Thursday, the NICD said a total of 357 laboratory-confirmed cases of measles have been reported in five provinces. The affected provinces include Limpopo with 140 cases of measles, Mpumalanga (75), North West (114), Gauteng (16), and the Free State with 12 reported cases.
According to the NICD, the age of the laboratory-confirmed cases across the five provinces ranges from two months to 42 years.
“The majority of cases, 146, were in the 5-9-year age group followed by 105 in the 1-4-year age group and 57 in the 10-14-year age group,” the NICD said.
“Of the 357 cases in the provinces where the measles outbreak has been declared, the vaccination status of 71 was known, of whom 28 were vaccinated.”
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