Durban — The Department of Health in KwaZulu-Natal assured parents that no child would be vaccinated against their parents’ will.
This comes after there had been hesitation from parents to vaccinate their children against measles as the vaccination campaign started last week and would end on March 31.
In a discussion that the Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane had on Friday with a health expert, they said vaccines have been there and emphasised that they protect against certain diseases by imitating an infection and this helps teach the immune system how to fight off future infection.
Dr Velile Ngidi a public health medicine specialist said as health professionals it is illegal for them to give a patient medication without explaining to them what it was. She said it was the same thing with a vaccine as well.
“Whenever children need to be vaccinated there are always consent forms that the parents or guardians need to sign,” said Ngidi.
Furthermore, Dr. Ngidi said 53 people had been diagnosed with the new covid-19 variant XBB.1.5 of Omicron. She said three of those people are from KZN. “The number could be bigger but now people do not get sick and are critical that they need to go and test for coronavirus,” she said.
She said Covid-19 is still here with us and it was important that if one is not feeling well they take all the necessary precautions to protect people around them.
Simelane said the numbers for Covid-19 infections have not changed much from last week however, that did not mean that Covid-19 is gone. She cautioned people to still take necessary precautions to protect themselves.
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