Never too late to vaccinate

The seventh African Vaccination Week will be celebrated from 24 to 30 April with the theme, Vaccines Protect Everyone. Get Vaccinated! This annual event will be in synchronisation with and led by, the World Health Organisation regions and World Immunization Week. The goal will be to strengthen immunisation programmes in the African region by increasing awareness of the importance of every person’s need and right to be protected from vaccine-preventable diseases.

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) is intensifying the education and advocacy efforts that are helping to close the immunisation gap and the NICD has published an up-to-date booklet with information aimed at South African parents. The book gives helpful hints and tips as well as answers to frequently asked questions. Tetanus in newborn babies has been eliminated in South Africa and much of the world, and diseases like diphtheria and measles have become unusual events whilst they were common in our grandparents’ generation.

Read Immunisation is key in battle against disease

During African Vaccination Week, we celebrate the strides made globally through decades of the expanded programme on immunisation and we acknowledge the efforts made by each mother to ensure her child is fully vaccinated. South Africa has been at the forefront of the introduction of newer vaccines, including Rotavirus vaccine protecting against diarrhoea, pneumococcal vaccine, protecting against lung and brain infections and the human papillomavirus vaccine protecting against cancer of the womb (cervical cancer).

Vaccines save lives. Each mother at a vaccination clinic participates in improving the health of all South Africans, in this generation and those to come.

To download the booklet visit: https://www.nicd.ac.za/index.php/vaccine-information-for-parents-and-caregivers/

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