Children should be vaccinated to protect them from certain dangerous infectious diseases. Individuals who are not immunised, increase the risk that they and others in their community will get the diseases vaccines can prevent. Children should be vaccinated at birth, 6 weeks, 10 weeks, 14 weeks, 9 months, 18 months, 6 years and at 12 years old (Child immunisation schedule [PDF]).
Clinics and community health centres in South Africa provide free vaccinations for your child. Additional vaccinations for diseases such as chickenpox, mumps and rubella can be provided by your doctor, but you will have to pay for those.
All vaccines used in the Department of Health's Expanded Programme on Immunisation in South Africa (EPISA), are manufactured according to strict safety requirements and are evaluated by the Medicines Control Council (MCC) to ensure efficacy, quality and safety before registration and approval for marketing. In addition, these vaccines meet World Health Organisation (WHO) standards of quality, safety and efficacy.
More information on immunisation can be found in the following documents:
- What you need to know about vaccination (vaccination schedule and information about the disease included in the schedule) [PDF]
- Facts about imminisation [PDF].
