South Africa must remain vigilant about polio as the threat of the virus spreading through its borders still lingered, Deputy Health Minister Molefi Sefularo said on Monday.
Addressing an Inter-Country Certification Committee meeting on the East Rand, Sefularo said remarkable progress had been made in the past 20 years to combat the spread of the virus but ”it is not yet time to rest”.
South Africa had been polio-free since 1998.
Despite this Sefularo said government would continue its national immunisation campaign every three years to highlight awareness of the need to vaccinate every child.
This was as the virus was still endemic in Nigeria, Afghanistan, India and Pakistan and could, with the movement of people, spread to other countries.
To date R100-million had been spent on government’s efforts and most recent figures showed that 85% of the country’s children were immunised before they turned one.
”We must ensure that no child is missed and that routine coverage should be increased and maintained at more than 90%.”
Poor performance of health authorities at district and sub-district levels could open gaps for the virus to spread.
”Therefore maintaining and increasing routine immunisation should be a priority for every health manager, every health professional and all health workers and support staff including the community, village health workers,” said Sefularo.
He said another stumbling block was the decrease in the number of volunteers. This was attributed to changes in the family makeup and community structures as well as economic pressures.
”Perhaps we should be pushing more, the entry point should be voluntary work,” he said. — Sapa