The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health is intensifying efforts to encourage parents and caregivers to ensure timely routine childhood vaccinations amid declining immunization rates across the province. The campaign launches on Tuesday in the Isibhezele Kubantu municipality in the Zululand district.
As part of a flagship program, the department intends to strengthen the campaign to bring parents and guardians back into the regular immunization schedule.
Decline in Immunization Rates
KwaZulu-Natal Health Minister Nomagugu Simelane noted that the drop in immunization rates jeopardizes South Africa's ability to meet the World Health Organization's recommended threshold of 90% vaccine coverage. This threshold is necessary to ensure reliable population protection against vaccine-preventable diseases.
Simelane emphasized that the 'Isibhezele Kubantu' initiative is an innovative project designed to address issues of socio-economic inequality and persistent barriers to healthcare access, such as poverty, transportation difficulties, and financial inaccessibility. The program helps reduce the burden on medical facilities, decrease overcrowding, and allow healthcare workers to provide services more effectively by bringing medical care closer to communities.
This initiative also plays a key role in the department's goal of delivering essential health services directly to the public, especially in underserved and hard-to-reach areas. Simelane pointed out that during the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccine rhetoric increased, exacerbating pre-existing trends toward lower immunization rates.
She added that many young parents grew up when dangerous childhood diseases became relatively rare, which may have reduced their awareness of the risks these diseases still pose to children. The department reports that the decline in routine first-dose immunization for infants dropped from 87% in 2021 to 67% in 2025, and the coverage for the hexavalent (6-in-1) vaccine fell from 87% to 60.5% over the same period. Factors contributing to the decline in coverage include misinformation, transport issues, and changes in household priorities.
Children Who Missed Vaccinations
Simelane specifically stressed that routine childhood vaccinations remain free at all public health clinics and are available from birth. The department is deploying community outreach teams to early development centers and underserved communities to identify unvaccinated children and ensure they receive the necessary doses.
She reported that mobile clinics and fully equipped outreach vehicles will utilize specialized multidisciplinary teams, including doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals. These teams plan to provide a wide range of primary healthcare services while helping parents and guardians bring their children up to date with the routine immunization schedule.