The outbreak of measles has spread to the Limpopo, causing the provincial health department to roll out an immunisation campaign.

Schools and crèches are visited. One of the schools, Louis Trichardt Primary, was visited by the health department on November 2.

“The officials told us that they vaccinate children from 15 months to 15 years. Most of the parents in our school gave permission to have their children vaccinated. We found the team very professional and the children were not at all traumatised. Very few cried,” said Ms Irene Adendorff, deputy principal.

Officials of the Health Department visited the school the previous week and parents signed letters of consent.

According to Adendorff, one learner in the school had probably contracted measles.

Local doctor Anton Stroebel said that a couple of cases of measles had been diagnosed in Louis Trichardt during the past months. No cases in Louis Trichardt, however, have been confirmed by the laboratory so far. According to Ampath Laboratory, two pre-school patients had been tested in October, but the tests came back negative. In November, one aged patient, a visitor to town, was tested, but the results are not available yet.

“One single laboratory confirmation of measles is considered to be a confirmed measles outbreak,” Mr Selby Makgotho, spokesperson for the provincial Health Department, said on November 3.

“The outbreak of measles was reported in Elias Motsoaledi and Greater Marble Hall in the Sekhukhune District municipality in Limpopo. Thirty-seven people were reported to have measles. No case fatality was reported,” Mr Makgotho said. Of the 37 cases reported between July 28 and September 13, five were officially confirmed via laboratory tests. Most of the patients (21 out of 37) were in the age group 10 to 14 years.

Two new confirmed measles cases were reported on September 29, one child from Elias Motsoaledi and one adult from Marble Hall.

Makgotho said that no statistics were available as yet for the Louis Trichardt and Vhembe area and no information on the extent of the campaign was made available.

Louis Trichardt doctor André van der Walt said that he had not come across a definite, positive case of measles. “There is no reason to panic. The measles out-break in the country could have a lot to do with people who have not been immunised, streaming into the country from across our borders,” Van der Walt said and regarded the campaign as pre-ventative.

Dr Stroebel supports the immunisation campaign fully and even had his own children immunised at the school.

“The health department uses exactly the same vaccination that the doctors do. They give an expensive vaccination of R150 for free.”

Stroebel said that the current measles is not a new strain of measles. The recent outbreak in Gauteng was mainly among teenagers and young adults. The implication is that the “group immunity” is less that 70% and therefore a national immunisation campaign is very important.

Measles is highly contagious. The symptoms of measles include an ongoing fever, rashes, a runny nose, cough and red eyes. Complications include encephalitis (brain infection), pneumonia (lung infection), ear infection, deafness, blindness and even death. Patients experiencing symptoms are advised to visit their nearest clinic or doctor for tests and treatment. The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) will test blood and urine specimens (sent on ice) free of charge.

Nationally, four deaths had been confirmed since the beginning of September, according to www.timeslive.co.za By October 22, Gauteng had recorded 1 222 confirmed cases of measles, with one confirmed death. There were 1 355 confirmed cases nationally (www.info.gov.za ).