Cape Town – The way in which cases of typhoid fever have been reported in the Western Cape has caused many to interpret the numbers inaccurately, the provincial health department has said.
“The recently reported increase in the number of laboratory-confirmed cases in the Western Cape was interpreted incorrectly as new cases,” the department said on Monday.
“The cases in the province were reported to be higher than in previous years. However, these reports are based on cumulative historical data as set out below,” it said.
The annual number of cases of typhoid fever as per the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD):
- 2020: 31
- 2021: 48
- 2022: 7
In the Western Cape, there have been three clusters of typhoid fever, however, the number of cases recently revealed has been recorded since 2020.
The three clusters in the Western Cape and when the first (and latest) case was recorded.
- Metro: 14 cases – first cases recorded in November 2020, the latest in January 2022.
- Cape Winelands: 11 cases – first case recorded in July 2020, the latest in May 2021.
- Garden Route: 12 cases – first case recorded in August 2020, the latest in December 2021.
The NICD has revealed that the first of North West’s 16 cases was recorded in November 2020, and the latest in December 2021.
“Although the first cases in all four clusters occurred in 2020, the presence of clusters in the respective districts only became evident in 2021 when additional cases were linked through cgMLST analysis,” the institute said on Friday.
cgMLST analysis or ‘core genome multilocus sequence typing’ is used to identify strains of typhoid. If multiple cases reveal the same strain in a district, it can therefore be confirmed that the cases are linked (genetically related) and that there is ongoing local transmission (a cluster).
This means the typhoid fever cases are not something new in 2022, only that they are now being reported.
However, the City of Cape Town has said on Monday that the number of cases of typhoid has in fact decreased, but has recorded the figures according to the financial year and only regarding the Cape Town area.
- 2019/2020: 25 cases
- 2020/2021: 18 cases
“In this current financial year, 15 cases have been notified to date with four of these cases being diagnosed in February,” it said.
“These cases are geographically spread across the City and do not appear to be linked to a common food or water source,” it added.
IOL