The Gauteng health department issued an emergency health alert on Wednesday night to the passengers and crew of flight SAA 051 from Kinshasa, which landed at Johannesburg at 6pm on September 18.
Spokesperson Popo Maja said an adult male passenger is being treated for measles in a Gauteng hospital.
Measles is the most infectious viral disease to affect humans and carriers are highly contagious for days before the onset of symptoms, Maja said.
Twenty-four cases of measles have been confirmed and notified in Gauteng since the beginning of the year, 10 of them in September, compared with five cases for the whole of 2002.
Maja said the cases, involving children and adults, were spread all over Gauteng from the East Rand to Pretoria and as far as Rustenburg in the North West.
Maja said that in the light of the current epidemic, parents must ensure their children’s measles immunisations are up to date.
These are available free of charge from all public and municipal health clinics, he said.
The symptoms of measles are high fever, rash, a dry unproductive cough, a runny nose, conjunctivitis and a general ill feeling.
Swelling of the glands commonly occurs in young children. Older children usually complain of sensitivity to light and joint pains.
Small spots with white or bluish-white centres on a red background may be seen on the insides of the cheeks in most cases before the onset of the rash.
The rash peaks in two to three days and becomes most concentrated on the trunk and upper body. It lasts from three to seven days.
Complications may include middle-ear infection, blindness, diarrhoea, dehydration, respiratory infections, pneumonia, convulsions and even death. The highest death rates occur in infants six to 11 months of age. — Sapa