Health authorities lash out

2003-08-01 17:04

Johannesburg - "Media hype" surrounding the outbreak of meningococcal meningitis in Potchefstroom, which has so far claimed three lives, has been severely criticised by health authorities and experts.

On Friday, a Johannesburg newspaper produced a front page report about the death of a 22-year-old student at Pretoria University, Etienne Searle, and alleged he succumbed to the disease on July 2.

However, the Gauteng health department's communications head, Popo Maja, took exception to the report, insisting there was absolutely no clinical evidence linking Searle's death to meningitis.

"I don't know where they get that from, there's no clinical evidence that he (Searle) died of meningitis.

"For us as health authorities it's very unfair because its an unnecessary scare, there's simply no evidence.

"We don't have any cases of meningitis in Gauteng but we are aware that this is the normal time of year for a meningitis outbreak... We say to people if they get the symptoms to immediately approach their doctor," Maja said.

He said that although there had been a minor outbreak in Potchefstroom, authorities had done everything in their power to contain it, including the setting up of a task team to investigate the various cases.

One of the cases currently being investigating is that of an 18-year-old matric pupil from Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape who was diagnosed with meningococcal meningitis earlier this week.

He is currently in hospital in a serious but stable condition.

Newspaper reports also linked the Uitenhage case to the outbreak in Potchefstroom, saying the student fell ill after attending a sports day in Bloemfontein along with students from Potchefstroom.

'Meningitis link needs investigating'

However, according to Dr Anne von Gottberg, a clinical microbiologist at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, the link established by the various media on the grounds of joint attendance at an event needed to be investigated.

"I know of three laboratory-confirmed cases from Potchefstroom that are linked epidemiologically, in the sense they occurred within a week of each other and there may be information that the people involved were in contact with each other.

"So in Potchefstroom yes there was an outbreak... but the new cases, no one can tell till they've been investigated very thoroughly. It's not enough to say the students played rugby together, the strain of the bacteria has to be the same.

"The department of health needs to investigate. We know there are currently increases in cases but now because of the media hype the cases are being connected. They may or may not be connected, they need to find out," said Von Gottberg.

Doctor Theuns Oosthuizen, the head of the Potchefstroom task team investigating the outbreak, concurred.

"We are at the moment on our fourth day clear from new cases. Regarding the case in Uitenhage, the first indication is that it's not linked but we will confirm that through epidemiological investigation.

"In general we are busy with all the epidemiological tracking. Indications are there is a small outbreak for the North West so that is why we established the task team," Oosthuizen said.

Last known case appeared on Monday

He said the last known case of meningococcal meningitis reported in the area had been on Monday, when a woman from Schweizer-Reneke fell ill with the disease after being in Potchefstroom the previous week.

She is currently in a stable condition.

Meningococcal meningitis, a highly infectious disease, is a form of acute bacterial meningitis found all over the world. It can be transmitted when people come in close contact with each other, by oral secretions.

The symptoms include a stiff neck, severe headaches and a high fever. In South Africa there are sporadic cases throughout the year and the current increase is a seasonal increase.

"It is normal to have sporadic cases of meningococcal meningitis at any time of year and normal to have increases at this time of year," said Von Gottberg.

While conceding that the mortality rate of the disease - between five percent and 10 percent - was high everywhere in the world, Von Gottberg stressed that media portrayals of a killer bacterium were unhelpful.

- SAPA