JAMES MAHLOKWANE
THE Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi has announced that the source of the Listeriosis outbreak remained unknown while laboratory-confirmed cases increased by 170 since November last year.
Motsoaledi explained that of the 170 extra cases, a total of 51 had already occurred before December 5 but were only discovered now as the search continued.
The minister was updating media alongside numerous leadership from organisations such as the World Health Organisation, National Institute of Communicable Diseases, the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and The Department of Trade and Industry.
The minister said it was difficult to trace certain people who could be living with the disease because scores of people did not have addresses although most people were quick to assume that all patients who visited hospitals had reliable physical addresses.
He emphasised that searching for laboratory-conformed cases was not the same as finding the actual patient.
"After discovering a positive test in a particular laboratory we hence have to start tracing the patient from the health facility that has sent the specimen. It is a very difficult and a tedious process to follow these patients,"
The Department of Health said this meant that out of 727 laboratory-confirmed cases, investigators were only able to trace 134 actual patients - just 18% of the patients.
"This means means that we still have a long way to go in searching. Out of the 134 traced patients, 61 had passed on. Of the 119 new cases found since December 5, we were only able to trace 5 and 3 of these have passed on. These 3 are already counted in the total of the 61 deceased."
The Department of Health emphasised that listeriosis was a serious, but preventable and treatable disease caused by the bacterium, Listeria Monocytogenes.
Motsoaledi said the public ought to know that animal products such as meat, meat products, dairy products, seafood and fresh produce such as fruit and vegetables could be contaminated from these sources.
Motsoaledi said unfortunately there was no vaccine for the disease in any part of the world although it could be treated.
The minister said although a multisectoral outbreak response team led by his department continued to monitor and co-ordinate the outbreak, South Africans should practise basic food hygiene principles.
The panel explained that finding the source of the disease was difficult because people consumed a large variety of food.
The minister said because the disease had already killed numerous people in the country and was already called an outbreak, that indicated that it was considered a crisis.
Farmers were encouraged to assist in the fight against the spread by maximising hygiene efforts in the processing, packaging and transporting of their products.
Motsoaledi said it was possible that this epidemic could disappear before scientists ever identified the source and found a cure.
He said it has happened in the past whereby diseases come and go without any immunisation.
The minister explained that Gauteng was still the most affected province with 63% of the epidemic.
The minister made a special request to health workers and the public to pay special attention to all pregnant women as their babies could be infected by mothers at birth.
"Have a high index of suspicion whenever dealing with a pregnant woman. Be alert all the time, be it at an antenatal clinic, labour ward or neonatology units,"
He encouraged all pregnant women to register on MomConnect so they could be reached quicker with messages aimed at assisting them over the period of their pregnancy.
Motsoaledi said in an effort to scientifically trace the source of the outbreak, a whole genome sequencing (WGS) analysis was done.
He explained that WGS was a DNA-fingerprinting analysis to see whether particular organisms were related and the same sequence type. This was done through three sources of isolates: clinical isolates, food isolates and environmental isolates.