adminThe Herald, September 1, 1979
CHANTELLE Mostert (1) received her measles vaccination at the Queen Elizabeth Children’s Clinic in Salisbury yesterday.
Superintendent Health Visitor, Sister Hillary Spencer, of the Salisbury City Health Department said yesterday that more than 20 000 children had been vaccinated in City Health Department clinics since the outbreak of the measles epidemic about three weeks ago.
She said there had not been any noticeable drop in the incidence of the disease.
It was hoped that a decline would show up next week when the incubation period of the first children to be inoculated ended.
Most mothers were now aware that measles was a killer, “and not only of malnourished children”, she said.
A spokesman for the Provincial Medical Officer of Health said the demand for measles vaccine in Mashonaland had been about 12 to 15 times as great as usual during the last two weeks.
Nearly 7000 doses had been distributed during this period, most of them to rural council clinics in the farming areas.
About 18 000 would be sent to Marandellas General Hospital for an Immunisation campaign to start soon.
LESSONS FOR TODAY
• Zimbabwe’s public health care system has always been proactive and making sure that children get vaccinated against the six killer diseases.
• It is everyone’s right to have access to healthcare facilities, because a healthy nation is a positive sign for economic growth.
• The catch them young strategy adopted many decades ago, has saved the lives of children under the age of five from killer diseases like polio, measles, tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus, hepatitis B, whooping cough, etc.
• The Ministry of Health and Child Care working with international partners has always ensured that children under the age of five are immunised against these killer diseases.
• To achieve this, the Health ministry would set up a number of centres that complemented hospitals and clinics where children receive free immunisation that helps them fight the preventable diseases.
• The Covid-19 pandemic might have affected the smooth operation of the year-to-year programme, considering the imposition of lockdowns since 2021, coupled with travel restrictions.
• A healthy nation is a wealthy nation. According to experts, health security focuses on pandemics and the spread of infectious diseases that are a threat to public health. Thus Zimbabwe has joined the international community to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, by ensuring that people from the age of 14 are vaccinated.
Online Reporter