From smallpox to polio, vaccines have rewritten the story of human health. During World Immunisation Week, we recognise their crucial role in protecting us from serious diseases. Shabir Madhi, a professor of vaccinology and director of the University of the Witwatersrand’s Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit, and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), which is dedicated to preventing and controlling communicable diseases, spoke to Caxton Local Media about the importance of vaccines.
“When I was training to be a paediatrician in the 1990s, the wards were filled with children who developed measles. It was common to see newborn babies develop tetanus, which is almost always fatal. Now, although measles still occurs in unvaccinated children, it is an uncommon cause of hospitalisation, and neonatal tetanus has been eliminated in SA,” says Madhi.
Key vaccines in the public sector’s Expanded Programme on Immunisation schedule are free at public primary clinics, says the NICD. Madhi adds that some GPs and private hospitals also provide vaccines - although a fee could be charged to cover the costs of the vaccines and their administration.
Myth-busting facts:
- Myth: Getting a vaccine will make me/my child sick.
- Fact: Vaccines can make you/your child slightly ill but these symptoms are usually
mild and do not last long.
- Myth: The measles vaccine (or any vaccine) will give my child autism.
- Fact: A study linking autism to the measles vaccine was flawed, disproved and
retracted, and many newer studies have shown no relationship
between autism and vaccines.
• NICD
What parents need to know:
There have been several immunisation developments that parents should be aware of, says Madhi.
- The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is given to girls at eight to nine years of age. Previously, it was two doses but it has been reduced to a single dose.
- In 2024, the rubella vaccine was introduced (given as a combination vaccine with measles vaccine). This protects against German measles and will also in the future protect babies against ‘congenital rubella syndrome’, a condition that can lead to abnormalities if pregnant women are infected with rubella.
- Pregnant women now receive Tdap, a combination vaccine against tetanus, diphtheria and acellular pertussis (whooping cough) in place of only a tetanus toxoid vaccine. This protects babies in the first few months of life, and before the baby is fully vaccinated. It is especially important for protection against whooping cough, which is most severe in infants under three months.
- There is an increased effort to boost children at school entry or eight to nine years of age with a diphtheria, tetanus, acellular pertussis (DTaP) vaccine, as whooping cough and diphtheria immunity may wane and adolescents may become susceptible to these diseases.
- In addition, the NICD says that the hepatitis B vaccine is given at birth to those babies whose mothers tested positive during pregnancy for the hepatitis B surface antigen.
