Measles vaccine campaign: Majority of concerns raised ‘more on religious grounds’

Despite the national department of health ramping up its measles vaccine campaign, cases continue to increase across the country, according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), which recorded 40 new laboratory-confirmed measles cases in the past week.

The NICD said it tested 5 335 serum samples for measles since the outbreak last year, 865 of which (16%) were confirmed positive and the percentage of samples testing positive decreased from 22% of 255 samples tested in the previous week, compared to 14% of 214 samples last week.

Measles outbreak in all provinces

“Measles outbreak has been declared in all the provinces in South Africa except for the Eastern Cape. In week 11, no new cases were reported in Mpumalanga, Northern Cape and Western Cape provinces,” said the institution’s Jack Manamela.

“The measles strain detected in Limpopo and North West is genotype D8, similar to the strain in Zimbabwe in the 2022 outbreak.”

ALSO READ: Measles outbreak: Record number of children underimmunised due to Covid pandemic

Health department spokesperson Foster Mohale said despite challenges encountered during the measles campaign, “we are very confident that we have reached more children with the immunisation campaign”.

“In terms of numbers, we have 429 716 (6-11 months), 2 518 988 (12-59 months) and 4 791 717 (5-15 years),” Mohale said.

“In terms of actual doses used per the same age group, we have reached almost 80% in 6-11 months, 57% in 12-59 months and just above 40% on the 5-15 years cohort.”

He also said the majority of the concerns raised were more on religious grounds, “but we are satisfied with the progress made”.

“We believe through collaborations with community-based stakeholders such as traditional leaders, sister government departments like basic education, faith-based organisations, NGOs, development partners, we will reach more children through this campaign,” he added.

ALSO READ: Measles outbreak in SA: 665 cases, vaccination campaign needed

“We still continue with awareness and health promotion activities to empower parents and communities with the benefits of child immunisation to make the right health choice for their children, because vaccines save lives.”

Vaccine rate drops

Professor Glenda Davison, associate professor and head of the biomedical sciences department at Cape Peninsula University of Technology, confirmed the disease was spreading widely “as our vaccine rate for measles has dropped and the country has not managed to catch up since Covid”.

Davison urged parents to ensure that children received their jabs and boosters.

ALSO READ: Increase of measles reported across 5 provinces – NICD

“Other problems which are affecting our ability to get everyone vaccinated is the flooding in some parts of SA, which makes it difficult for people to get to clinics,” she said.

“The country has always had a >80% measles vaccine rate and so I believe that people want to get it, but were hampered due to Covid. I do believe that the healthcare services will get it under control and that we won’t see another pandemic like Covid.”