Doctors say a recent spate of contagious diseases in Grahamstown is not unusual for this time of year. Cases of German measles, mumps and chickenpox have been reported in the town in the past few months, leading some to speculate that there was an 'outbreak'.
Doctors say a recent spate of contagious diseases in Grahamstown is not unusual for this time of year. Cases of German measles, mumps and chickenpox have been reported in the town in the past few months, leading some to speculate that there was an 'outbreak'.
Dr Bert Evans, of Gainsford and Partners medical practice in High Street, however, said in Grahamstown the period from August to the end of the year was the 'season for sickness'. "For lots of people to be getting ill now is nothing unusual," Evans said this week.
"It always happens at the change of the season. What is of concern is an increase in cases of mumps, he says, particularly among teenagers and students. It's a concern because children get routinely vaccinated for mumps. It makes you wonder if there was a problem with the vaccine at the time. The standard prevention administered, at 12-15 months and again at 4-6 years, is the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. We're not especially seeing more measles and rubella (German measles), but there is a marked increase in mumps cases," Evans said this week.
According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumps), mumps (epidemic parotitis) is a viral disease which, before the introduction of a vaccination programme, was a common childhood disease worldwide. It is still a significant threat to health in the third world, and outbreaks still occur sporadically in developed countries.
Painful swelling of the salivary glands (classically the parotid gland) is the most typical presentation, Wikipedia says. Painful testicular swelling (orchitis) and rash may also occur. The symptoms are generally not severe in children. In teenage males and men, complications such as infertility or subfertility are more common.
While three Grahamstown schools referred queries to the High Street medical practice, another school with 400 boarders emphasised that while they'd had cases of contagious illnesses, these were far from being outbreaks.
"We've had one mumps and three German measles – no chickenpox. The mumps was a day scholar," said the school's sanatorium nurse, who asked to remain anonymous. An outbreak would be if a quarter of the boarding school population got a sickness.
Sister Heather Ferreira, of the Rhodes University sanatorium, said, Yes, we had few cases of mumps among students, both in the residences and in digs. Some of them were diagnosed at the Health Care Centre and others went to their private doctors.
The district epidemiologist for the Eastern Cape Health Department had not responded to queries at the time of going to press.
