Child deaths curbed by new vaccines

In an attempt to curb child deaths the health department will embark on a campaign promoting immunisation, it announced on Sunday.

"The department introduces new measures to prevent child deaths... aimed at promoting the national immunisation week and raise public awareness around the importance of immunisation," it said in a statement.

The nationwide campaign, scheduled from August 1 to 9, would coincide with the national roll-out of the Rotarix vaccine, used to prevent diarrhoea among young children.

Rotarix is one of the two vaccines launched in the Eastern Cape in September 2008, the other being Pneumococcal Conjugate, used to prevent diseases caused by streptococcus pneumoniae.

The latter was rolled out in April 2009 as part of the department's expanded immunisation programme. – (Sapa, July 2009)

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