Health department appeals for calm as NICD detects two diphtheria ...
The Department of Health is appealing for calm after the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) detected two cases of diphtheria.
PHOTO: Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images
The Department of Health is appealing for calm after the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) detected two cases of diphtheria.
The department said the NICD detected the cases in a child in the Western Cape and an adult in KwaZulu-Natal last month.
It said diphtheria was an uncommon but vaccine-preventable infection that spread through respiratory droplets from coughing or sneezing.
It urged parents to ensure their children get vaccinated against the disease.
The vaccine should be given to all children as routine vaccines in the first year of life. Booster doses should also be given at 6 and 12 years. Catch-up vaccination is possible if doses have been missed. Clinicians, including primary healthcare nurses throughout the country, have been urged to have a high index of suspicion for diphtheria, and to notify suspected cases and to send specimens to the laboratory for testing.
The department said close contacts with infected people were at risk of getting sick.
The toxin-producing bacterium may lead to difficulty in breathing, heart rhythm problems, and even death.
The symptoms include a sore throat with a formation of a membrane on the tonsils and throat and swollen glands in the front of the neck.
The department also urged laboratories to screen all throat swabs for diphtheria and send positive cases to the Centre for Respiratory Diseases and Meningitis at the NICD.
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