Creche praised for speedy response

Staff averted listeriosis disaster

A Soweto creche that helped crack the mystery behind South Africa’s listeriosis outbreak has been commended for acting speedily by taking sick children to hospital.

Yesterday, Gauteng health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa visited the Child Care Orientation Centre in Klipspruit, outside Johannesburg, where nine children survived the disease after being treated at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital.

The children’s case led environmental officers and scientists to cold meat factory outlets in Germiston and Polokwane where traces of the deadly ST6 strain of the disease was found.

This is after 180 people died and 948 fell sick.

Cold meat products including polony, viennas and russians were recalled from major retailers.

Shereen Louw, who is one of the affected parents, recalled the day the children fell ill.

Louw said some had fever and were vomiting.

“It was not good. The parents could not sleep,” she said.

Creche owner Momi Oliphant said they had stopped serving polony to the children since the incident.

She said she appreciated the intervention from the depart- ment and clinic staff who assisted in taking children to the hospital.

She said one of the nurses at the clinic had carried children to the vehicle herself and insisted that they be taken to Chris Hani Baragwanath.

“It was as if they were her own children,” Oliphant said.

Ramokgopa said the country would still be in the dark had it not been for the staff at the creche, who actedspeedily in rushing the children first to a clinic, and then the hospital, on realising they were sick.

“The children who come here didn’t die. We would like to thank the creche for taking the children to the hospital,” Ramokgopa said.

She interacted with some of the children and their parents while giving them tips on healthy eating habits.

Ramokgopa also inspected fridges in the house and backyard rooms. A packet of halaal russians belonging to a tenant was found in one of the fridges.

Ramokgopa urged people not to consume cold meats of any kind until the disease was contained.

/THULANI MBELE Gauteng health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa cheers up the kids at the Childcare Orientation Centre, a Soweto creche where the listeriosis cases in December led to the source of the disease.