No malaria threat in Pretoria - expert
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) says there is no danger of a malaria outbreak in Pretoria.
A woman from Doornpoort, north of Pretoria passed away from malaria on Thursday evening.
Her family says she did not travel recently.
Her son, Maurice Johan Pieterse, says his mother was diagnosed with a form of bronchitis.
"She was ill for about a week, she did not really get better. She was really, really dehydrated. We rushed her to hospital and within 48 hours from admission she passed on," says Pieterse.
Pieterse says they explained to the doctors that she did not travel to any areas with malaria.
"When they finally did a test on Thursday evening round about 7.00pm with a fever at a certain temperature, they eventually diagnosed her with a severe form of malaria and she passed on that evening at 10.20pm," says Pieterse.
Pieterse says another woman in the Doornpoort area also passed away from malaria.
"We have a WhatsApp group in the area and there is another lady that passed on in our street. She passed on last night. She was in ICU and she was 33 years-old. She stayed about 15 houses from where we stay," says Pieterse.
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The NICD's Lucille Blumberg says it would seem that Pieterse's mother was infected by a travelling malaria infected mosquito rather than local transmission.
"Every year around January to April we do see some affected mosquitos coming from malaria areas. They don't often survive, but if they do, they can bite people locally and infect them, but these are rare events," says Blumberg.
Blumberg says it's difficult to diagnose when you don't live in a malaria affected area.
"One does not think about malaria when you are living in a non-malaria area when you get a fever, so the diagnoses is not made early, as one would expect - but these are rare events," says Blumberg.
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Blumberg says five to six similar cases are reported every year.
"We do investigate them all just to make sure there isn't some local transmission, but in all cases we have followed up on, there has not been local transmission," says Blumberg.
Blumberg says they are not expecting a malaria outbreak in Pretoria.
"It's likely that one or two mosquitos came in a suitcase, minibus or airplane. I think this area is close to Wonderboom Airport. Unfortunately the mosquitos wanted to feed and bit these people and infected them," says Blumberg.