Statement by Adv. André Gaum, Minister of Education in the Western Cape

We have decided to close Rhenish Girls' High School in Stellenbosch for one day as a precautionary measure following confirmation of a case of meningococcal meningitis at the school.

Rhenish will close on Wednesday 27 August 2003, but learners must return to school in Thursday, 28 August 2003.

The learner concerned is currently being treated at the Panorama Medi-Clinic.

The school has established that about 115 learners were in contact with the learner concerned. The contact with the leaner with meningitis was more than four days ago. Meningitis has an incubation period of one to four days, which means that it is unlikely that any of the other learners, who have been in contact with the affected learner, would have contracted the disease. Had they contracted meningitis the symptoms would be evident by now.

All these learners have been given antibiotics. My department, the Western Cape Education Department, and the Health Department of the Stellenbosch Municipality are monitoring the situation closely.

The Health Department has dispatched school doctors to the other schools who had contact with the learners of Rhenish Girls High, namely Paul Roos Gymnasium, Bloemhof Girls High and Hugenote High.

However, I call on the parents of learners of these schools to ascertain whether their children show any signs of the symptoms of meningitis.

The common signs and symptoms to look out for are flu-like with the following distinctions, especially the last four symptoms should be regarded with high suspicion:

• Sudden onset with fever,
• Intense headache,
• Nausea and vomiting,
• Stiff neck,
• Irritability,
• Eyes sensitive to light,
• A rash consisting of small, dark, red discoloration all over the body

We have constituted a multi-functional team headed by our Director: Special Education Support Services to monitor the situation and give support to these schools. The Director of the Education Management and Development Centre in the area, as well as our Chief Director: Regional Services are in close contact with the Department of Health.

Dr Abdullah, DDG (Health) has also dispatched officials from the Health Department to deal with the situation.

Tomorrow my department will inform all schools via circular about precautionary measures to prevent the spread of any contagious diseases, such as the continuous monitoring of learners to check for symptoms of meningitis.

If the possibility exists that a learner may have contracted the symptoms, a medical practitioner must be contacted and the following procedures must be adhered to.

Should a medical practitioner contact the school with a confirmed diagnosis of meningitis for one of the learners/educators at the school, the following are the recommended steps that must be taken immediately by the school principal and school governing body:

1. Contact must be made with the Education Management Development Centre (EMDC) to report the confirmed diagnosis at the school.
2. The EMDC must contact the Regional Health Services, Communicable Disease Unit. The Regional Health Services will intervene at the school level with a monitoring and evaluation of the level of risk at the school. Risk of infection is rated as low, medium and high dependent on a variety of factors, and the Health team will evaluate these.
3. The health team and the EMDC management will make recommendations for further steps, with follow-up monitoring necessary.

We express our sympathies for the learner who has contracted the disease and wish her a speedy recovery.

I call on all parents and teachers to ensure that all learners are kept warm and safe and that conditions at our schools do not pose a risk of contracting illness to any of our learners or teachers.