Cape Town - Health Minister Joe Phaahla says there are enough vaccines available at public health facilities following the outbreak of measles in some provinces.
Outbreaks have been confirmed in Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Gauteng, Free State in Thabo Mofutsanyane district only, Northwest and on Thursday, the NICD confirmed an outbreak had been declared in the Western Cape following the detection of four laboratory-confirmed measles in the City of Cape Town.
Responding to Freedom Front MP Philip van Staden, Phaahla said: “The department worked with the relevant role players to get enough vaccines for the purposes of interrupting transmission.”
“There is enough stock to conduct a supplementary immunisation campaign for children aged six months to 15 years in all provinces,” he said.
Phaahla also said the number of doses procured by provinces for measles was 10 123 300 for the target population of 16,3 million.
“The doses referred to here above exclude the stock on hand in the province before the campaign and outbreak.”
Phaahla also said in provinces where public-private partnerships (PPP) exist, for the private sector, their facilities are supplied with vaccines and trained to manage data and submit to the local sub-district for capturing.
He stated that the PPP was not in all the provinces.
Meanwhile, the Department of Health has appointed 529 additional health professionals in permanent and contract positions in rural facilities during the period of October 2022 to December 2022.
Phaahla said a further allocation of 9 958 medical interns and community service personnel in 17 categories of health, of which 7 368 were allocated in rural and under-served areas, commenced duty from January 2023.
“This appointment process is expected to continue until 1 April 2023,” he said.
Cape Times