World Polio Day Commemoration: 24 October
Pretoria: The Department of Health reminds parents and caregivers to ensure children are up-to-date with child immunisation schedule to prevent vaccine-preventable diseases including polio.
South Africa will join rest of the global community to commemorate World Polio Day today (Tuesday, 24 October) to highlight global efforts towards a polio-free world and recognise tireless efforts by health workers to eradicate the disease across the world.
Polio is highly infectious and mainly affects children under the age of 5 years through invading the nervous system. It can cause total paralysis in few hours and can lead to death. Initial symptoms include fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness of the neck and pain in the limbs.
South Africa has been certified a polio-free country in 2006 by the African Regional Certification Commission (ARCC) but the risk of imported cases of polio remains high due to frequent cross-border movements or migration of people to the country hence it is important for parents to ensure that all children are vaccinated.
The last confirmed case of wild type poliovirus in South Africa was in 1989.
The World Health Organization recommends that an importation of any case must be treated as a serious concern and high-quality response efforts to reach every child with polio vaccine are critical to curb the spread of the virus.
There is no cure for polio, however it can only be prevented through vaccination which is provided free of charge at all public health facilities.
In South Africa, children should receive two doses of oral polio vaccine – one at birth and the other at six weeks of age.
In addition, children are protected from polio by the doses of hexavalent vaccine which they receive at six, ten and fourteen weeks and 18 months of age. Caregivers are encouraged to ensure children receive all of these doses.
These doses should be provided at the recommended ages, they can also be provided as catch-up doses.
Media enquiries:
Foster Mohale
Cell: 072 432 3792
E-mail: Foster.mohale@health.gov.za
Doctor Tshwale
Cell: 063 657 8487
E-mail: Doctor.Tshwale@health.gov.za
