Measles Outbreak Ends in South Africa

While various measles outbreaks continue globally, one country just reported some great news.

The Republic of South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) today announced in the past week, as of July 22, 2023, only one laboratory-confirmed measles case was detected from the Western Cape province.

And the Limpopo province, the year-long measles hot spot, is currently completing a mop-up vaccination campaign.

The outbreak is effectively over, said the NICD in a media release on July 28, 2023.

However, the percentage of samples testing positive increased from (0/19) in week 28 to (1/12.) of samples tested in week 29.

The NICD has tested 6,541 serum samples for measles since epidemiological week 40, 2022, of which 1,115 (17%) were confirmed positive. 

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the top ten measles outbreaks as of July 18, 2023, were led by India, with 67,592 cases.

To alert international travelers,  the CDC published a global Watch-Level 1, Practice Usual Precautions notice on June 29, 2023, regarding measles outbreaks in Africa and other countries.

Measles cases worldwide increased by about 80% during 2022 compared with 2021.

And the CDC recently reported 18 measles cases in twelve jurisdictions in 2023. Last year, there were 121 measles cases in six U.S. jurisdictions.