152K children vaccinated

Talent Gore

CITY of Harare Health Department has vaccinated 152 000 children against measles.

Their target was 259 000 when the blitz began early this month.

Harare City Council epidemiologist, Dr Michael Vere, said the vaccination represented a 59 percent coverage.

“This is obviously short of our target, which is 95 percent, to reach herd immunity.

“We want to encourage all those who have children aged between six months and five years to visit their nearest clinic to get them vaccinated against measles.”

Dr Vere said the majority of fatal cases were largely from unvaccinated children.

“Out of the 209 cases recorded, we noticed that 56 percent are from unvaccinated children, which is unfortunate because they present more severe forms of the disease and have complications,” he said.

He said Harare’s Southern District was the most affected area.

“We noticed that there are certain areas that are more affected than others.

“For example, Harare South District is more affected with 54 percent of cases,” he said.

Southern District consists of Mbare, Hopley, Waterfalls and other surrounding areas.

“Out of these areas, Mbare is the most affected and we continue to encourage people to get their children vaccinated,” he said.

He thanked apostolic sect members for responding to the vaccination call.

“We have had a positive response from the apostolic sect.

“We had noticed that 44 percent of positive cases presented at our facilities are from the sect.

“It means some of them are actually embracing the health delivery system.”