Minister Joe Phaahla progress update on various health issues
8 December 2022
Emergency Medical Services Festive season contingency plans
The Department has been inundated with media and public enquiries in the past few days about the emergency medical services and capacity especially as the country enters the festive season, which is associated with high rates of accidents and trauma.
The Emergency Medical System in all provinces have festive season contingency plans which are aligned to Arrive Alive Campaign, Road Safety Awareness led by the Department of Transport. Although, the deployment periods vary within provinces but heightened focus for the 2022/23 Festive Period will be from 14 December 2022 to 20 January 2023.
The associate risks during festive season include Vehicles accidents; Pedestrian vehicle accidents; Domestic accidents; Domestic violence, GBV and femicide; Increased crime; Alcohol poisoning; Risks related to recreational/sporting activities; Drownings; Gang violence and Mass casualty incidents.
We have deployed strategic resources according to the needs and demands of each and every area across the country. These include ambulances; rapid response units; aeromedical services and disaster buses. We have roped in the Private sector EMS in order to augment our current capacity through existing Service Level Agreements.
We will be deploying 1350 ambulances across the country`s major high traffic volume routes which include N1; N2; N3; N4; N4; N5; N6; N7; N10; N12; N14. The breakdown or allocation of ambulances per province is as follows: Eastern Cape (209); Free State (118); Gauteng (384); KwaZulu-Natal (222); Limpopo (120); Mpumalanga (72); North West (84) Northern Cape (67) and Weston Cape (74).
Measles Outbreak 2022
In terms of the update on the outbreak of measles diseases, a total of 137 cases of laboratory-confirmed measles have been reported from four provinces, as of 11th of October in Limpopo Province up until the 6th of December 2022.
Limpopo and Mpumalanga have reported 89 and 40 cases, respectively. Another outbreak was declared in North West province on the 2nd of December 2022 after three cases were reported. On the 6th of December three cases were reported by Gauteng. The WHO defines a measles outbreak as 3 cases reported in a single district in one month.
The age of cases or patients across the country range from 2 months to 42 years, the dominant age category of laboratory-confirmed cases is 5-9 year age group which accounts to 56 cases, followed by 1-4 years which accounts to 40 cases and the least affected age group is 0-1 year which suggests that parents do take their babies for vaccination. Of the 137 cases, 98 had an unknown vaccination status, 17 had a history of vaccinated, while 22 were unvaccinated.
The number of measles cases in the country are rising, and so far four out of nine provinces have outbreaks. It is imperative to know the signs and symptoms. Measles patients present with fever, rash, and one or more of these symptoms, cough, red eyes, and runny nose. Complications of measles include pneumonia, diarrhoea, dehydration, encephalitis, blindness and death.
Measles complications are severe in malnourished children and young infants under 2 years of age. Persons of any age who are not vaccinated can be infected and develop the disease. Clinicians and caregivers should be on alert for anyone presenting with the aforementioned signs and symptoms. Road-to-health booklets should be checked to ensure measles vaccinations are up-to-date.
Provincial and District outbreak teams have been mobilised in line with outbreak response guidelines and have implemented the necessary response measures. Contact tracing and active case search at health care facilities is ongoing, and blood samples from suspected measles cases are being forwarded to NICD for testing. Province-wide measles immunisation campaign have started, Limpopo began on 23 Nov – 15 Dec, targeting children of 6 to 59 months, and Mpumalanga is following suit. The National Mass Measles Immunisation Campaign, supported by the World Health Organisation (WHO) is planned for 06 – 17 February 2023.