Vital to keep vaccinating

AS THE world works to develop a vaccine against the coronavirus, healthcare capacities are stretched and, in some cases, vaccination services might have been disrupted.

The coronavirus outbreak serves as a valuable reminder of the important role vaccination plays in protection from infectious disease. During the pandemic, it is vital that routine vaccination of children is maintained. Vaccine-preventable diseases are severe and can be life-threatening.

“One can only imagine the devastation of an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease, such as whooping cough or polio, superimposed on a pandemic where health-care resources and facilities are already under strain due to Covid-19,” says Dr Nasiha Soofie, the country’s medical head for the vaccines unit and exports market at Sanofi Pasteur.

Vaccination protects children and adults from serious but preventable diseases, such as diphtheria, measles, pertussis (whooping cough), polio, tetanus, tuberculosis and hepatitis.

The World Health Organization recommends that, to minimise other infectious disease outbreaks and loss of life, urgent catch-up vaccinations should be allowed in places where services have been disrupted.

No child should be denied vaccination without serious thought about the consequences for the child and the community. Vaccination is a right.

Despite improvements, vaccination coverage in South Africa remains sub-optimal at 74%. Vaccine preventable diseases kill more than half a million children under 5 years of age in Africa every year. |