By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The North West Health Department has confirmed a case of an outbreak of Typhoid fever around Klerksdorp. This is one of four cluster outbreaks identified by the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD).
The other three clusters are located in the City of Cape Town, Cape Winelands and Garden Route in the Western Cape.
“Our MEC Madoda Sambatha has made this pronouncement that the province has enteric fever cases. When we look back since November 2020, we are now standing at 19 cases. One case was reported at the Welmark Park Private Hospital and the 18 others were reported at Klerksdorp hospital. All these cases in Matlosana and we realise it is because of the infections that come out of the illegal mining,” said Tebogo Lekgethwane, Provincial Health Department Spokesperson.
The North West Health Department has cautioned communities, especially around the mining areas of the province, to practice proper hygiene to ensure that they do not fall ill.
Meanwhile Tshwane health MMC Rina Marx said the laboratory confirmed reported cases in Tshwane since January 2022 are five, including the one on Thursday.
Two other cases were reported in the metro in December, but despite this, Marx assured this did not mean there was a typhoid fever outbreak.
“Reported cases this far are distributed, but there is currently no distinct cluster outbreak and the health department’s teams are monitoring all reported cases closely, “she explained.
Typhoid fever, also called enteric fever or simply ‘typhoid’, is a bacterial disease spread through contaminated food, water or close contact.
Vaccines are recommended in areas where it is common, with cases only able to be confirmed through laboratory testing.
Typhoid fever is treated with antibiotics.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) confirmed earlier this week there were four outbreak clusters, in the City of Cape Town, the Cape Winelands, the Garden Route and in the North West’s Kenneth Kaunda District.
The first cases emerged in 2020, but the presence of typhoid only became evident last year.
“The relevant provincial and district departments of health are aware of the clusters, and outbreak investigations are ongoing,” the NICD said in a statement.
The NICD assured the contamination of municipal water was “extremely unlikely to be the source of infection in any of these clusters”, owing to the demographics and scale of the cases.
“It is very likely that there are complex chains of transmission within the respective communities, mostly due to the presence of unrecognised cases and carriers who serve as reservoirs of infection and lead to ongoing transmission.
“This makes it challenging to investigate and pin point source(s) within the communities.
“Healthcare workers countrywide should be more aware of enteric fever, so that cases can be detected and treated appropriately.”
The largest recent outbreak of enteric fever occurred in Delmas in 2005, with more than 2 900 cases reported.