Parents encouraged to immunise their children

SEDIBENG.- The Gauteng Department of Health has urged parents, who might have missed their children’s immunisation dates due to the onset of COVID-19, to ensure that their little ones are immunised at regular ages as set out in the road to health care card in order to protect them against diseases.

The department said that 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. The COVID-19 pandemic has 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 longstanding challenges in immunisation coverage and could result in secondary outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases.”
The department further said that the immunisation coverage of children under the age of one year was at 87.4% (227 222) in the 2019/20 financial year and dropped to 83.1% (217 717) in the 2020/2021 financial year. This has however, gone up to 88% (231 991) in the 2021/2022 financial year.

“Even though the number of children that present at clinics for immunisation is improving, following the drop experienced in the 2020/2021 financial year, due to the onset of COVID-19, we can still improve the uptake if more parents/guardians ensure that they bring their little ones to the facilities. It is important that as we mark the start of the African Vaccination Week taking place between 24 to 30 April, under the theme: “Vaccines bring us closer” no child is left behind.”