Get your child immunised

Joburg's clinics will be sending reminders to parents and caregivers to update their children’s vaccinations, as immunisation is one of the main ways to stop outbreaks of infectious disease.
HEALTH care facilities are gearing up for immunisation season, and the City’s department of health is urging all parents and caregivers to bring their children to its clinics to get vaccinated against infectious diseases.

Joburg clinics offer free vaccination for childrenJoburg clinics offer free vaccination“The department of health offers free immunisation services at all its health facilities that are readily accessible to the community,” says City spokesperson Nkosinathi Nkabinde. “This is in an effort to provide a healthy society for our children to grow up in.”

Following the measles outbreak in 2010, the City has prioritised health and, in particular, childhood immunisation. In line with this, the health department will check all clinics’ records within the next three months to identify those who have missed or had interrupted immunisations.

These children’s caregivers or parents will be contacted to encourage them to bring the children into the clinics; this will be done telephonically, through reminder letters or home visits. “All children need to be vaccinated to protect them from certain infectious diseases,” Nkabinde explains.

“Caregivers are urged to respond to the telephonic and letter reminders that will be used to track these children and kindly bring them to the nearest clinic facility to be vaccinated. The health department is aiming at following up at least 80 percent of all the defaulters that each clinic will have identified.”

Illnesses such as polio, tuberculosis, hepatitis B and measles are covered by vaccinations, and when the majority of children in a community are immunised the likelihood of disease spreading is much lower, according to Nkabinde. But it is important that a child receives all the vaccinations required in his or her age category to be fully protected.

According to the South African vaccination schedule, children should be vaccinated against the various contagious diseases at birth, and then again at six weeks, 10 weeks, 14 weeks, nine months, 18 months, six years and 12 years old.

All vaccinations on the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) schedule are safe and effective. Vaccinations required in each age category are:

At birth: the oral polio vaccine (OPV) and BCG, which protects against tuberculosis (TB)
At six weeks: OPV; DTP, which acts against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (whooping cough); Hib, which protects against meningitis and pneumonia; IPV, or injectable polio vaccine; Hep B, which acts against liver disease hepatitis B; PCV (pneumococcal conjugate vaccine), which protects against streptococcus pneumoniae diseases including sinusitis and otitis (ear ache); and the rotavirus vaccine, which protects against diarrhoea caused by the rotavirus
At 10 weeks: DTP, Hib, IPV and Hep B
At 14 weeks: DTP; Hib; IPV; Hep B; PCV; and Rotavirus vaccine
At nine months: measles vaccine and PCV
At 18 months: DTP, Hib, IPV and measles vaccine
At six years: Td vaccine, which acts against tetanus, and OPV
At 12 years: Td vaccine
For more information and to find your nearest clinic, visit the health department’s web page. Information on regional clinics, as well as public hospitals and clinics throughout the city, is available through links on the page.