"Vaccination, vaccination, vaccination!" That's the advice of Dr Jane Pistorius, local manager of Veterinary Services in the Makana area, as she spoke about measures farmers should take to prevent the spread of Rift Valley Fever.
"Vaccination, vaccination, vaccination!" That's the advice of Dr Jane Pistorius, local manager of Veterinary Services in the Makana area, as she spoke about measures farmers should take to prevent the spread of Rift Valley Fever.
Since Grocott's Mail's report last week on an outbreak in the Mossel Bay area, the disease has emerged even closer to home. Haga-Haga farmer, Dr Les Trollope, said post-mortems had confirmed an outbreak of the disease in the Komgha and East Coast Resorts areas, north of East London.
Last year, the national health ministry reported that the disease had claimed at least nine lives. About 139 cases of Rift Valley Fever had been reported by the National Institute of Communicable Diseases.
According to the World Health Organisation, the virus can be transmitted to humans through the handling of animal tissue during slaughtering, assisting with animal births, conducting veterinary procedures, or from the disposal of carcasses or foetuses.
It is also transmitted by mosquitoes and causes outbreaks of abortion and deaths of livestock. "We continually urge farmers to vaccinate their livestock, but I guess it is just human nature for them to leave things till the last minute," said Pistorius.
"Agriculture plays a huge part in the lives of our communities, so I don't understand why people keep delaying such vital procedures."
Symptoms of the virus include muscle pain, sensitivity to light, vomiting, loss of appetite and flu-like fever. In more severe forms of the disease, patients experience intense headaches, convulsions, haemorrhage, fever and even coma.
