By Nangamso Mabindla
30 July 2004

SCORES of children throughout Buffalo City this week were immunised against measles and polio, in the latest wave of a countrywide campaign aimed at eradicating the two diseases.

The programme was launched last month by the City and the Eastern Cape department of health, who pledged to eliminate both illnesses by 2005 - in line with a call by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to target all children under the age of five, especially new-born babies.

The sister in charge of the City's central clinic in East London, Nomonde Myataza, said she was satisfied with the progress made this week. "We're happy with what we've done so far. Come tomorrow; we will reach our targets."

"We have now turned our focus to daycare centres around East London. This is the fifth one today and we're looking to do more on Friday," she added.

The City's expanded programme on immunisation co-ordinators Thembi Norushe and Lillymore Zill said the process was going smoothly.

The provincial department of health requires a 95 percent success rate. "We've always exceeded that; in fact, our success rate is now over 145 percent," said Zill.

On a visit to one of the City's clinics in Fort Grey this week, officials from the WHO's expanded programme on immunisation and the national department of health were full of praise for the co-ordinators' work.

"They were so impressed with what we had to offer. They also noticed that we had been going ahead with our programme annually - we're not only doing it because of the campaign," said Norushe. "Since 1996 we have had a 100 percent success rate with our immunisation."

The secret behind the City's success was teamwork, the co-ordinators said. "We always put emphasis on teamwork. We hold workshops on the importance of eradicating these illnesses."

Far from being complacent about the praise, the City's department of health is hoping to improve on its success rate in order to play a bigger role in the eradication of these illnesses in the world. "We want to kick polio and measles out of Africa and indeed the world," said Norushe.