The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health is to embark in a province wide campaign immunising children in order to ensure that children grow healthy and develop well into adulthood.
Seven to 19 September 2009 will be earmarked for the promotion of child health where mothers and child minders of children up to the age of six will be encouraged to visit their clinics to have their children immunised against all sorts of diseases.
The department will be encouraging mothers to take their children, every six months, to receive vitamin A in their nearest clinics. Children with vitamin A deficiency suffer a dramatically increased risk of death, blindness and illness, especially from measles and diarrhoea.
As part of the call to action, the Department of Health has set as one of its goals the elimination of vitamin A deficiency and its consequences. The campaign, to achieve this goal, aims to ensure that young children living in areas where the intake of vitamin A is inadequate receive the vitamin through a combination of breast feeding, dietary improvement, food fortification, and supplementation.
“Children represent the future, and ensuring their healthy growth and development ought to be a prime concern of all societies. Newborns are particularly vulnerable and children are vulnerable to malnutrition and infectious diseases, many of which can be effectively prevented or treated” the MEC for Health, Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo, believes.
The campaign will be rolled out throughout the province with health care workers visiting all communities and also encouraging mothers and minders to visit their nearest clinics.
Enquiries:
Sibonelo Msomi
Cell: 083 980 7481
Issued by: Department of Health, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
1 September 2009
Source: Department of Health, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
(http://www.kznhealth.gov.za/)
