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Surge in measles hits medical aids

Cape Town - The incidence of measles is almost 200% higher than it was last year, significantly increasing medical schemes' treatment expenses.

Dr Ali Hamdulay, product manager for disease risk management at Qualsa Healthcare, says that in the Western Cape alone Metropolitan Health is experiencing a 195% increase in expenditure on treatment for measles among the 17 medical funds it administers.

The measles epidemic initially took hold in Gauteng but has begun to dissipate, while it is rapidly spreading in the Western Cape.

According to the Department of Health the number of cases has reached 444, with seven deaths.

This is 190% more than in the same month last year, says Hamdulay.

He says that children are the most susceptible to the infection and it is important for those between six months and two years to be immunised or receive booster shots.

Measles is generally treated symptomatically, but Hamdulay explains that the cost to funds escalates as a result of complications requiring hospitalisation.

These complications are usually pneumonia, diarrhoea, bacterial infections and, in rare cases, encephalitis.

People with weakened immune systems or suffering from diseases such as cancer, or those who are HIV-positive, are particularly susceptible.

In the past six months the funds administered by Metropolitan Health have paid out more than R180 000 for 21 hospitalisations owing to measles.

The funds within Metropolitan Health represent close to two million of the eight million or so members of South Africa?s medical schemes.

Hamdulay notes that government responded pretty quickly to the measles epidemic by accelerating the national immunisation programme.

The problem in the Western Cape was tackled by rapidly making 35 000 immunisation shots available at clinics throughout the province.

- Sake24.com

For business news in Afrikaans, go to Sake24.com.

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