Members of three Rotary clubs in Pretoria (Pretoria West, Hatfield and Pretoria Capital), in partnership with the South African Vaccination and Immunisation Centre (SAVIC) at Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, have embarked on an awareness campaign about polio and a vaccination drive to vaccinate children aged 0-12 years against polio.
An estimate of about 200 vaccines will be administered onsite at the Sunnypark Shopping Centre in Sunnyside, Pretoria on October 22 2022.
Polio is a viral vaccine-preventable disease (VPD) which is highly infectious, crippling and potentially fatal with no cure and affects mainly young children. This VPD is transmitted through infectious human spread i.e. faecal-oral route or less likely by contaminated water and foods. Upon infection, the virus replicates in the intestines, then invades the nervous system and might cause paralysis among one in 200 infections with five per cent to 10 per cent of paralyses cases resulting in death.
The awareness campaign and vaccination drive are in the wake of the recent reports about the wild Poliovirus outbreak in Mozambique and it is in observance of World Polio Day 2022 which takes place, globally, on October 24.
This campaign focuses on three action areas where communities:
1. Get informed about polio and help make it a subject of conversation.
2. Help by spreading the word about Polio eradication.
3. Donate to help obtain the support, transport and materials needed in the fight against Polio.
“The partnership between the Rotary Clubs in Pretoria and SAVIC allows for the administering of polio vaccines to eliminate the risk of infections where we know that polio mainly affects children under the age of five years and that there is no cure, but polio is preventable with a vaccine. Although only two countries remain endemic for wild Poliovirus (Afghanistan and Pakistan) there is now a resurgence in Mozambique,” says Dr Stella Anyangwe, the ENDPolioNow Coordinator for Eastern and Southern Africa for 2022 – 2025, at Rotary International.
Rotary and its partners have reduced cases by 99.9 per cent since 1988 and continue efforts to remain polio-free in most parts of Africa, including South Africa, through similar campaigns across the world.
For more information, visit https://www.endpolio.org/
