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Thandeka Moyo, Health Reporter
THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) will on Monday conduct a vaccination programme against the deadly measles-rubella for children aged from six months up to five years in all hospitals, council run clinics and schools.
This comes after the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned against a dangerous global come back of measles- a preventable and highly infectious viral illness that can lead to serious health complications such as lung and brain infections in children.
On the other hand, congenital Rubella, another form of measles causes irreversible birth defects like deafness, cataracts, heart defects, mental retardation and spleen damage.
In a statement, council senior public relations officer Mrs Nesisa Mpofu said parents and guardians should ensure they access the service that will run until Friday. “The City of Bulawayo in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Child Care will from September 23 to 27 conduct the National Measles Rubella Vaccination and Vitamin A Supplement programme. The nationwide activity is being done to protect all children from Measles or Rubella outbreak,” said Mrs Mpofu.
“The target age group is children aged between 6 to 59 months and guardians can access services from all council clinics and hospitals; all schools, pre-schools and various outreach points around the city.”
Mrs Mpofu urged members of the public to also spread the message to others so that no child misses out on the opportunity.
WHO warned of a dangerous measles come back last week set to affect many countries including in Africa as cases have been increasing since the beginning of the year.
“Every region in the world, except the Americas, is experiencing an increase in cases of measles, a vaccine-preventable disease that can kill or disable children,” said WHO in a statement last week.
“Nearly 365 000 cases have been reported globally this year, the highest figure since 2006, which represent only a fraction of the 6,7 million suspected cases. Measles caused an estimated 109 000 deaths in 2017 as shown by recent figures.”
For a country to attain the measles free status it must achieve at least 95 percent measles immunisation coverage and Zimbabwe stands at 90 percent.
Zimbabwe launched a national immunisation programme in 2012 following a massive measles outbreak in 2009 which killed 630 children.
During that time, more than 12 000 suspected cases were recorded. — @thamamoe
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