Ramphelane Morewane, Acting Deputy Director General for Health Programmes, National Health Department

First Thing is First | The national health department has acknowledged South Africa faces a measles outbreak as vaccination drives against the childhood virus are lagging. The uptake of childhood vaccines dipped during the pandemic. Measles, one of the most contagious human viruses, is largely preventable through vaccination.  According to the latest statistics from the health department, the coverage of first vaccination doses was 88.5% in April while the second dose coverage was 84%. Only 85% of children are fully vaccinated, which is 10% lower than the 95% coverage required to prevent outbreaks. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has also warned countries to brace for global measles outbreaks due to a steady decline in childhood vaccination during the pandemic. WHO reported that in 2021 a record high of nearly 40-million children missed at least one measles vaccine dose. About 25-million children missed their first dose and an additional 14.7-million missed their second dose. The world body warned this decline “is a significant setback in global progress towards achieving and maintaining measles elimination and leaves millions of children susceptible to infection”.   Guest: Ramphelane Morewane, Acting Deputy Director General for Health Programmes, National Health Department