National immunisation rates for children under five years have dropped dramatically during South Africa’s Covid-19 lockdown, sparking fears of an outbreak of deadly childhood infectious diseases including measles., show that national immunisation coverage in April during Level 5 of the lockdown dropped from 82% in April last year to 61% for April this year.
The number of fully immunised children under one year of age who have had all required immunisations at birth, at six, 10 and 14 weeks and at six months and nine months; and The health department does not collate immunisation figures in the private sector, but they were expected to be down. This was confirmed by a spokesman for pharmacy retail store Dis-Chem, who toldthat its 290 clinics spread across stores countrywide had reported steep declines in immunisation coverage.
Unicef also warned that an additional 6,000 children could die every day from preventable causes over the next six months as the pandemic continues to weaken health systems and disrupt routine services.by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, which was published inDrawn from the worst of three scenarios in 118 low- and middle-income countries, the analysis estimates that there could be another 1.
By way of comparison the reproductive number of symptomatic cases of SARS-CoV-2 is estimated to be between 2 and 3.5, she said.Bamford said that the Department of Health at no time discouraged caregivers from coming to clinics for immunisation. She said at the beginning of the lockdown some facilities and provinces stopped immunising, and caregivers with children could not access health services.
Professor Greg Hussey, Vaccines for Africa director at the University of Cape Town, agreed that there is a real danger that with dropping immunisation rates due to lockdown measures, infectious diseases will spike when children integrate at crèches and schools. Bamford said community health workers who help identify children who are not immunised and refer them to facilities, have also been involved in the Covid-19 response.
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