Ensure your children are vaccinated
It is important to get your little ones protected from vaccine-preventable diseases.
Health practitioners have observed an alarming trend of parents missing their children’s immunisation appointments, while some lose the immunisation cards (commonly known as road to health cards).
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), immunisation prevents deaths ranging from two to three million each year.
Therefore, the City of Ekurhuleni reiterates that every day is an immunisation day, and every child must be vaccinated according to the immunisation schedule.
“It is important to get your little ones protected from vaccine-preventable diseases, and the first step towards ensuring that is through vaccination,” said sister Tembi Mahlangu, a nursing services manager at the Brackenhurst Clinic in Alberton.
“It doesn’t matter whether you lost the road to health card or missed the scheduled date, ultimately a child must be immunised.”
She further indicated that children need all the required vaccinations at the right time during their developmental stages.
Skipping a stage poses a threat to a child’s development, making them prone to vaccine-preventable diseases.
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Vaccines stimulate the body’s immune system, which helps to prevent and protect children from serious illnesses such as polio, hepatitis, measles, meningitis, diphtheria, pneumonia and other life-threatening illnesses that affect children as they grow.
Another important factor raised by health practitioners is that parents of school-going children tend to forget that their children need to be immunised when they are six and 12 years old for the compulsory tetanus and diphtheria vaccination.
The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination received by Grade Eight schoolgirls helps to prevent cervical cancer and reduces the risk of contracting viral infections that affect both girls and boys.
The vaccine is given by school health nurses.
Help the City of Ekurhuleni grow its future leaders by ensuring its children are immunised.
Parents and guardians may visit Ekurhuleni health facilities, which are open Monday to Friday, from 8am to 4pm.
The city also offers extended operating hours at selected health facilities to accommodate parents who cannot make it during weekdays.
No child should be turned away from any health facility without being assisted.
Should parents or guardians experience any challenges related to immunisation at any of the facilities, they can contact sister Motshidisi Moleleki, manager of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation and Outbreak Response, on 011 999 2126.
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