South Africa warns of polio risk amid falling vaccination

South Africa warns of polio risk amid falling vaccination - A child being vaccinated against polio after an outbreak in the Horn of Africa. (Photo: UNICEF Ethiopia/2013/Sewunet)

South African Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said falling vaccination coverage was creating "a deep vulnerability" in population immunity.

South Africa faces a growing vulnerability to polio as declining routine immunisation leaves more children at risk of vaccine-preventable diseases, South African Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi warned Tuesday.

Speaking at the 36th Annual Meeting of the Africa Regional Certification Commission for Polio Eradication in Johannesburg, Motsoaledi said falling vaccination coverage was creating "a deep vulnerability" in population immunity.

"Coverage for the third dose of the hexavalent vaccine, which carries our inactivated polio vaccine, has fallen below the required 80 per cent coverage," he told the meeting, adding that roughly 400,000 children in South Africa were "zero-dose" children in 2025.

Motsoaledi said that coverage of measles and rubella vaccination had also fallen below 75 per cent, adding, "The ongoing outbreaks of diseases such as measles, diphtheria and pertussis are clear evidence of this vulnerability."

South Africa recorded its last case of wild poliovirus in 1989 and regained its wild-polio-free status in September 2019 after the certification was rescinded in 2017 over weaknesses in surveillance and routine immunisation.

Although the World Health Organisation African Region was certified free of indigenous wild poliovirus in 2020, an imported strain caused an outbreak in Malawi and Mozambique in 2022, with nine cases reported in total.

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The four-day event is expected to assess immunisation and surveillance systems and strengthen preparedness and response measures to protect children from the reintroduction and spread of poliovirus.