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Nutrition, immunization and vitamin
deficiency among children under six will be targeted during the City's Child
Health Week campaign.
THE City's health department will go all
out to attend to children's needs during National Child Health Week, which runs
from 7 September.
Until 20 September, the
department's campaign will target children up to the age of 72 months, or six
years. "We'll be visiting crèches and pre-schools across the city as that's
where the children are," said the public health deputy director, Elionora
Lebethe.
Children between the ages of 12 and 59
months will be given vitamin A and de-worming tablets. Lebethe said it was
important that all children were taken to campaign points, which included all
public clinics.
Nutrition in all children from six to 59
months would be assessed at all points. "We will be measuring the weight of the
children to ascertain nutrition status."
She said catch-up immunization would be administered
to all children who may not have received all their vaccinations. "A child who
has missed immunization is susceptible to infections. That child's immune
system remains low, exposing him or her to all sorts of infections."
The department aims to visit all early childhood
development institutions in Johannesburg,
but clinics, which are more strategically placed, will run the campaign
continuously. "Nurses at the clinics will go all out to attend to children,"
Lebethe stated.
Vitamin A is critical for eye health and
the proper functioning of the immune system, reducing the severity of childhood
illnesses. Deficiency is recorded as the leading cause of preventable
blindness.
Lebethe pointed out that the department
aimed to reach out to every child in Johannesburg
and its townships, regardless of their nationality and parents' refugee status.
"What matters is the health of the child, not whether she's from Zimbabwe or
anywhere."
Parents who were not sure if their child had
been immunised would be asked to consent to catch-up immunization. They would
also be asked to sign the consent forms sent to the institutions to give the
health personnel permission to attend to their children in the presence of a
teacher.
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