The Western Cape Health department announced that the meningitis outbreak in Mossel Bay appears to have been contained.

There have been 33 confirmed cases.

Thirty-two cases involved minors.

“These mostly affect children,” says the department spokesperson Mark Van der Heever
Those affected were receiving treatment at a private hospital.

Van der Heever said the outbreak had not spread beyond Mossel Bay thus far.

The Western Cape health department was currently working to trace where the origins of the outbreak, and had sent communicable disease outbreak response teams to the area.

Van der Heever said the first cases were reported at a crèche.

“Currently there are 33 confirmed cases of meningitis in the Mossel Bay area, however, it’s not cause for concern. What parents need to do on their side is to practice good personal hygiene.”

The department’s communicable diseases unit was  dispatched to the area to assess the cases.

This brings the number of those hospitalised due to enteroviral meningitis to 33 since December.

The disease has been contained to the Garden Route town.

The department says enteroviral meningitis is not the bacterial kind, which is the more lethal one.ENCA