Question NW9 to the Minister of Health

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22 February 2023 - NW9

Profile picture: Van Staden, Mr PA

Van Staden, Mr PA to ask the Minister of Health

(1)Whether there are enough vaccines available for each province for effective treatment of the measles outbreak that is currently taking place throughout the Republic; if not, what (a) measures are in place to overcome the shortages and (b) is the position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details; (2) whether the Government has taken steps to ensure that the private sector obtains the vaccines as well; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details; (3) whether he will make a statement on the matter?

Reply:

The measles outbreak was in five of the nine provinces namely Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Gauteng, Free State in Thabo Mofutsanyane district only, and Northwest.

1. Yes.

(a) In response to the current outbreak and seeing that there is a need to increase the age group from 6 to 15 year, the department worked with the relevant role players to get enough vaccines for the purposes of interrupting transmission.

(b) There is enough stock to conduct a supplementary immunisation campaign for children aged 6 months to 15 years in all provinces. The number of doses procured by provinces for outbreak/campaign is 10 123 300 for the target population of 16,3 million. The doses referred to here above exclude the stock on hand in the province before the campaign and outbreak.

2. In provinces where there is Public Private Partnerships (PPP) exists, with Service Level Agreement, for private sector, their facilities are supplied with vaccines and trained to manage data and submit to the local sub-district for capturing, however PPP is not in all provinces.

3. No.

END.

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