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Programme Director,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen.

I feel particularly honoured to have been invited by the Department of Health to deliver a keynote address at the launch of the Immunisation Awareness Week. I also bring you warm greetings from my colleagues in the Provincial Legislature and the Executive Council.

All of us, by virtue of being here today, commit ourselves to confront the challenge of protecting our children from the scourge of preventable diseases.

During this week, we must strive to remind parents of the importance of immunising young children against eight vaccine preventable diseases: childhood TB, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, haemophilus influenzae B, hepatitis B, polio and measles.

The message that must be highlighted to parents and the general community is that if children are not immunised, then life-threatening outbreaks may occur. The other critical reality that must not be ignored is that one case of polio from outside the country can spark a major outbreak if children in that particular area are not immunised.

I am confident that the Department of Health is doing everything in its power to ensure that our province has the necessary capacity and resources to deal with any cases.

The need to eradicate preventable diseases like polio and measles is not an option, but an imperative for action. We must pursue this goal so that we can lessen suffering and to divert scarce resources to where they are needed most.

It is heartening to note that we have registered many success stories in the immunisation programme in the North West province. As a result of the impact of our effective immunisation campaign, we have seen massive reductions of illnesses and deaths due to these preventable diseases. Credit should go to all health workers and parents, because without this partnership, success would have remained a mirage.

More challenges remain, however. Part of the challenge lies in the fact that these diseases have not been entirely eradicated. Community participation is clearly critical to the success of all immunisation campaigns. In the long-term, strategies that are central to the success of the immunisation awareness campaigns, include:

* Involvement of local leaders in planning, social mobilisation and implementation of the campaign in their communities;
* Identification of any cultural, educational, logistical, political or religious barriers which prevent certain communities from taking their children for immunisation and deal with them in a traditionally acceptable way; and
* House to house visits to seek out eligible children and motivating them for immunisation.

I call our community to participate actively and enthusiastically in this mass mobilisation campaign, motivated by a deep recognition that an investment in the health of our children is an investment in the future of our nation.

The new democratic government views the health of a child as fundamental to the future development of our society. Indeed, the strength of any health system is ultimately reflected in the health status of its children.

The delivery record of the Department of Health confirms that our health workers are part of a nation at work to create a better life for our children.

The Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) is the most cost-effective way of controlling preventable diseases that are common in children. Prior to 1994, most clinics had special immunisation days, a practice which resulted in a lot of missed opportunities. All primary health care facilities now immunise children on all days, thus increasing the accessibility of this service to a larger number of children.

SEARCH FOR POLIO CASES

Let me take this opportunity to remind you of the campaign to search for suspected polio cases, which the North West Department of Health launched on the 15th of May 2001.

For our country to be declared polio-free by the World Health Organisation (WHO), we must provide WHO with evidence of the absence of the polio virus. This calls for a concerted campaign to search for suspected polio cases (i.e. cases with main polio symptoms). The North West is required to find and investigate at least 13 cases of suspected polio annually. In all countries where polio has been eradicated, community involvement and participation have been identified as central to their successful strategies in detecting and reporting suspected polio cases.

Suspected polio cases are all children under the age of 15 years who develop sudden weakness or paralysis of leg(s) and/or arm(s) not caused by injury. These children must be taken to the nearest clinic or hospital before 15 days of the onset of weakness or paralysis.

The search for polio cases must continue for many years even after our country has been certified polio-free.

May I, in conclusion, urge our parents, health workers and the community to continue with our good work of fighting preventable diseases and to encourage those who have not started to do so.

I hope we will all contribute to making the Immunisation Awareness Week a success. We doing it for our children, and the future of this country.

I thank you.

Issued by: Office of the MEC for Health, North West, 6 August 2001