The department has pleasure to announce that since the start of the measles and polio campaign, on Monday 12 April 2010, in KwaZulu-Natal; 429 642 children between the ages of six to 59 months and 601 844 children between five and 14 years have been immunised against measles as well as 436 852 children against polio (a total of 1 468 338) in a target population of four million children.
“Immunisation brings hope to thousands of infants, children and teenagers who are saved through immunisation and the widespread suffering, sickness and socioeconomic disruption that are avoided,” the MEC Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo says.
Vaccines which protect against disease by inducing immunity are widely and routinely administered based on the principle that it is better to keep people from falling ill than to treat them once they are ill. Immunisation is considered to be one of the most cost-effective health interventions. Through immunisation one dreaded disease, smallpox was eradicated and poliomyelitis has been eliminated from most parts of the country. It is estimated that over thousands of deaths are averted through immunisation every year. Immunisation have an advantage in that they can be delivered with very high coverage even in the most underserved areas, thereby preventing disease, disability and death in populations.
The primary objective of immunisation strategies is to prevent disease in infants and young children because nearly all severe measles and polio diseases occur in children less than five years of age and the majority of the deaths occur among infants.
Our Immunisation strategies are two-fold:
* Universal infant immunisation. Immunisation of all infants through routine services is the highest priority. This strategy has been proven effective over many years
* Catch-up immunisation of older children. Children aged greater than 12 months can be protected with just a single dose of vaccine. This approach provides some protection to older children.
“Our target is to reach at least 3,1 million children in the province and the campaign is divided into two phases. The first phase is currently underway until 23 April where we administer measles vaccine to children between the ages of six months to 15 years and polio vaccine to children between 0 to 59 months. We thank the huge response we got from care givers, parents and educators, in particular, who have been inviting our teams into their schools and crèches,” the MEC added
The second round will commence on 24 to 28 May and will also include vitamin A and deworming.
Immunisation is a proven tool for controlling and even eradicating disease. Through immunisation; diseases have drastically decreased over the years. We urge all parents to bring their children to the nearest clinic to be immunised.
We will soon roll out the H1N1 immunisation throughout the province, which was a little held back by transportation to various depots logistics.
The best protection you can offer a child is having him/her immunised!
Enquiries:
Chris Maxon
Cell: 083 285 0567
Issued by: Department of Health, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
20 April 2010
