ACCORDING to healthcare providers, an average child can expect at least 20 vaccinations before the age of 10, with the first doses routinely given soon after birth.
Whether or not these vaccines deliver the potentially lifesaving medication they claim to, vaccines are a normal part of life for most of the world’s population, they insist.
In Zambia, children in the rural areas have in the past generally been said to be at a disadvantage compared to their counterparts in urban areas where such services as vaccines are made available to them from the day they are born.
In terms of statistics, urban areas could be said to have achieved 100 percent vaccination while rural areas have far lagged behind.
However, today it is pleasing to hear Deputy Health Minister Chitalu Chilufya say that 90 per cent of children under the age of one in Central Province have been immunised.
This is surely an impressive performance by health workers considering that Central Province is largely rural and, as the deputy minister says, more work needs to be done to capture the remaining 10 per cent because vaccination is critical to the health of children.
Every major authority, the Government through the Ministry of Health at local level and the World Health Organisation at international level, recommends regular vaccinations of children.
This is because if properly administered, vaccination may in some cases actually be a requirement for attending some schools and even travelling across some borders.
Studies have further shown that vaccination is a very powerful preventive tool which helps build up one’s immune system essential to protect one in case of infection by a live virus.
Cases like small pox have been whipped off the face the earth thanks to vaccination against this once notorious pandemic. Other illnesses have, meanwhile, dramatically decreased since the introduction of vaccination.
Health workers say that vaccination is one of the most effective ways of disease control such that if all persons religiously followed vaccination schedules, diseases could be eradicated.
Even as there may be some side effects of administering a vaccine, benefits far outweigh risks, and we implore parents in other parts of the country to emulate their colleagues in Central Province and have their children regularly vaccinated.