IN response to the country’s measles outbreak, parents will be able to vaccinate their children at Hillside Mall on The Bluff, every Friday from February 17 to March 17. Ward 66 councillor, Zoë Solomon, said the clinic will offer measles vaccines to children from the age of six months to 15 years.
“The community health facilitator, Sindisiwe Nene, and her team will operate from a mobile bus at the mall’s parking area along Tara Road. Services will be offered every Friday between 09:00 and 14:00, but on other days, people can go their local clinics to vaccinate. Parents must carry their child’s Road to Health card.”
ALSO READ: Measles outbreak sets off national vaccination campaign
The Department of Health appeals to parents and caregivers to support the national child immunisation campaign against measles, Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and other vaccine preventable diseases.
The department, working closely with the sister departments of Basic Education and Social Development, together with various stakeholders, has embarked on the campaign to vaccinate children at schools, early childhood development centres and other public places, to ensure no child is left behind.
Schools have been issuing consent forms to learners for parents and caregivers to sign to enable health workers to immunise learners. No learner will be immunised until his or her parents or legal guardian has given permission through signing a consent form, and parents are strongly encouraged to provide this consent.
According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), the country has recorded 506 laboratory-confirmed cases of measles since the outbreak of this highly contagious, but preventable disease caused by a virus which mainly spreads through infectious airborne respiratory droplets from infected persons when coughing or sneezing.
The majority of the infected people by measles are between the ages of one and 15 years, hence the campaign is targeting all children in that age group. Measles symptoms include fever, red eyes, runny nose and cough which typically appear before the onset of the disease’s characteristic rash.
Although often mild and self-limiting, some people, especially young children and pregnant women, may develop complications such as diarrhoea, pneumonia, ear infections and eye complications resulting in admission to hospital and in severe cases death. HPV vaccine protects girls from developing cervical cancer later in life.
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