Parents urged to get little ones vaccinated

THE Gauteng Department of Health has urged parents to get their children immunised to protect against disease as World Immunisation Week kicks off.

World Immunisation Week, which takes place from April 24 to 30, is an opportunity to underscore the importance of immunisation in saving lives and to encourage families to vaccinate their children against deadly diseases.

“The Gauteng Department of Health urges parents, who might have missed their children’s immunisation dates due to the onset of Covid-19, to ensure that their little ones are immunised at regular ages as set out in the Road to Health care card in order to protect them against diseases,” said the spokesperson of the Gauteng MEC of Health, Kwara Kekana.

The department said that the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted the provision of routine immunisation services and aggravated the existing sub-optimal immunisation coverage rates in the country.

The Gauteng Department of Health revealed that the immunisation coverage of children under the age of one year was at 87.4% (227 222) in the 2019/20 financial year and dropped to 83.1% (217 717) in the 2020/2021 financial year.

The coverage has, however, gone back up to 88% (231 991) in the 2021/2022 financial year.

“These disruptions of routine immunisation services brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic could worsen the long-standing challenges in immunisation coverage and could result in secondary outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases,” Kekana said.

She added that even though the number of children who present at clinics for vaccines is improving, following the drop experienced in the 2020/2021 financial year due to the onset of Covid-19, the department was still confident that it can improve the uptake if more parents and guardians ensure that they bring their little ones to the health-care facilities.

Young children from birth until the age of five are vulnerable to many infectious diseases such as polio, tuberculosis, hepatitis, measles and meningitis.

“Immunisation helps prevent these diseases, as well as stimulate a child’s immune system to fight against infectious diseases later in life,” the spokesperson said.

She added it is important that no child is left behind.