BY MUNYARADZI BLESSING DOMA
Vaccines are one of the major medical advances that have been made, leading to the saving of many lives as they are safe to use, World Health Organisation (WHO) Zimbabwe Representative, Dr Desta Tiruneh has said.
Dr Tiruneh revealed this on Tuesday during a media science café organised by WHO and Health Communicators Forum.
According to WHO, vaccination is defined as “a simple, safe and effective way of protecting you against harmful diseases, before you come into contact with them. It uses your body’s natural defenses to build resistance to specific infections and makes your immune system stronger.”
Dr Tiruneh revealed this as Zimbabwe is preparing for another round of oral cholera vaccine soon.
“Zimbabwe is preparing for another round of oral cholera vaccination, for a small targeted area this time. The vaccine is going to be received soon, then we have to do the campaign.
“One of the issues that we noticed in the last campaign is that some people or some different groups of people for different reasons, either religion or other conspiracy theories, they don’t want to take vaccines.
“But if we talk about medical advances, vaccines are the best thing that ever happened in health sector because with the vaccines you can prevent lots of deaths,” said Dr Tiruneh.
He revealed that it was unfortunate that many children were dying of diseases which can be easily prevented by vaccination, hence there is need for more awareness such that people are fully aware of the life saving impact of vaccines.
“We can see for example I can tell you that small pox is gone and now we have polio almost at the point of eradication because vaccines change the world.
“We have many kids that are dying because of measles and measles you have vaccination, with two doses, you are done for life.
“You have yellow fever, I think with just one dose, you are done for life.
“So we have vaccines which can prevent lots of killer diseases, so this is something that we should appreciate.
“But I know with anti-vaxxers, they will create all sorts of stories, that if you take this, you will become sterile, but people will be infertile for other reasons but they associate it with that (vaccination) and then they say no, this is my lived experience, I was vaccinated now I cannot have a baby.
“But it has nothing to do with the vaccine. And there is no proof,” added Dr Tiruneh.
Similar sentiments were also echoed by Dr Lincoln Charimari, WHO Zimbabwe, Emergency Incident Manager, who spoke of the oral cholera saying it is safe as it can be used in all people who are aged one year and above.
“It can even be used in pregnant women, it can be used by even those who are HIV positive, it’s one of the safest vaccines around, so it is safe and you use it with other measures.
“And now that the cases have reduce to zero, it doesn’t mean it (cholera) has completely gone away, we have to continue to be vigilant and to continue to observe the necessary hygiene practices,” said Dr Charimari.
Anti-vaxxers are people who are opposed to vaccination and it has been revealed that several vaccination campaigns were hampered because of conspiracy theories around vaccination.
It said while anti-vaxxers refuse to vaccinate, they have also influenced other people not to vaccinate, giving all sort of theories.
