Parents, who missed their children’s immunisation dates, urged to inoculate little ones
“Young children from birth until the age of five are vulnerable to many infectious diseases such as polio, tuberculosis, hepatitis, measles and meningitis. Immunisation helps prevent these diseases, as well as stimulate a child’s immune system to fight against infectious diseases later in life.”
Parents in Gauteng are encouraged to get their little ones immunised to protect against diseases as the African Vaccination Week takes place until April 30, under the theme: “Vaccines bring us closer – no child is left behind.”
Gauteng health MEC spokesperson Kwara Kekana urged parents, who might have missed their children’s immunisation dates due to the onset of Covid-19, to ensure that their little ones were immunised at regular ages as set out in the road to health care card.
“Young children from birth until the age of five are vulnerable to many infectious diseases such as polio, tuberculosis, hepatitis, measles and meningitis. Immunisation helps prevent these diseases, as well as stimulate a child’s immune system to fight against infectious diseases later in life,” said Kekana.
She said the Covid-19 pandemic had disrupted the provision of routine immunisation services and worsened existing sub-optimal immunisation coverage rates in the country.
“These disruptions of routine immunisation services brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic could worsen the long-standing challenges in immunisation coverage and could result in secondary outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases.”
She said the immunisation coverage of children under the age of one year was at 87.4% in the 2019/20 financial year and dropped to 83.1% in the 2020/2021 financial year.
Kekana said this had, however, gone up to 88% in the 2021/2022 financial year.
“Even though the number of children that present at clinics for immunisation is improving, following the drop experienced due to Covid-19 we can still improve the uptake if more parents and guardians bring their little ones to the facilities.”
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