Harare, 28 July 2009 --  The Honourable Minister of Health and Child Welfare, Dr Henry Madzorera stated that immunization is safe for all Zimbabwean children in a press conference he held with local and international media. This follows some media reports in the days following the National Immunization Days that some children were falling sick after immunization.

Zimbabwe carried out NIDs from 8th to 19th June 2009 and more than 2 million children received polio and measles vaccines as well as vitamin A supplementation, with coverages of 92% for OPV, 95% for vitamin A, and 93% for measles.

Dr Madzorera said that the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, WHO and UNICEF set up a task force to investigate the reported cases which were mostly in Karoi district. He said although adverse events are common after immunization, the task force found out that the reported events had no link to immunization. He said the cases were incidental and were instead linked to poor water and sanitation, and surveillance is still going on for all reported cases.

The Honourable Minister said that the vaccines used were not expired, and were administered by trained health personnel, and the cold chain was mantained as per WHO standards. He therefore, urged all mothers and care givers to continue taking children for routine immunizations, and those called for during child health days because immunization is safe for all Zimbabwean children.

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