From epidemiological week 1 to week 41 of 2024, 339 laboratory-confirmed cases of measles and 5323 cases of rubella were reported by the Measles/Rubella Reference Laboratory at the Centre for Vaccines and Immunology, National Institute for Communicable Diseases, NICD/NHLS. Sporadic laboratory-confirmed measles cases were reported from week 1 to week 41 with Gauteng province reporting the highest number of measles with 150 cases.
The challenge with some of the measles samples referred to NICD, from the private laboratories based in Gauteng, for testing from other provinces were allocated incorrectly to the City Of Tshwane or the City of Johannesburg due to lack of patient information. One hundred and fifty-six (156) laboratory-confirmed measles cases were reported from epidemiological week 34 to week 41 with Gauteng province and KwaZulu-Natal provinces reporting 63 and 33 cases respectively. The majority of the reported measles were also positive for rubella IgM antibodies which suggests that these are false-positive measles IgM results. Measles and rubella PCR results on these specimens are pending.
Highlights
Measles Surveillance
- A total of 339 laboratory-confirmed measles cases were reported between epidemiological week 1 and week 41 of 2024 in South Africa. From epidemiological week 1 to week 41, the majority of laboratory-confirmed measles cases were reported in Gauteng provinces. Gauteng province reported 150 laboratory-confirmed cases from epidemiological week 1 to week 40 of 2024. Laboratory-confirmed measles cases continue to be reported in Gauteng province in all districts except West Rand district which reported the last measles case in week 25 of 2024.
Rubella Surveillance
- From week 1 to week 41 of 2024, 5323 laboratory-confirmed rubella cases were reported in South Africa through measles and rubella surveillance. Rubella circulation had increased in Gauteng and Kwazulu-Natal in recent epidemiological weeks, with sustained circulation in Mpumalanga, Northern Cape Eastern Cape and North West provinces. The Western Cape Province has shown a decrease in the number of reported rubella cases.
South Africa is presently experiencing a seasonal rubella outbreak. As the non-pharmaceutical interventions that were implemented during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic significantly curtailed seasonal rubella infections, many more children than usual are susceptible to rubella. Consequently, more rubella cases are being diagnosed this season than in the pre-2020 rubella season. Rubella cases have increased to the level above the pre-Covid number with 5323 cases this year compared to 1370 reported in 2019. The number of rubella cases reported nationally is similar to the number of cases reported during the last big rubella outbreak from 2009 to 2012 with more than 2000 rubella cases reported each year.