Avoidable deaths could soar if children are not vaccinated due to fear of Covid-19
In SA, vaccinating children over the lockdown would avert more than 18,000 deaths compared to about 300 excess Covid-19 deaths
23 July 2020 - 16:10
Suspension of childhood immunisation in SA during the lockdown could have detrimental effects and result in thousands of young children dying from preventable infections such as diarrhoea, measles and pneumonia, a new study has cautioned.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended in March that vaccination campaigns be temporarily suspended. The world body qualified this by advising that these programmes be sustained in places where healthcare services had adequate human resources and vaccine supply, and where physical distancing could be maintained...
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