{"id":54723,"date":"2026-02-07T18:16:44","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T18:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/health-officials-connect-low-vaccination-to-outbreaks"},"modified":"2026-02-07T20:21:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T20:21:01","slug":"health-officials-connect-low-vaccination-to-outbreaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/health-officials-connect-low-vaccination-to-outbreaks","title":{"rendered":"Health Officials Connect Low Vaccination to Outbreaks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Sierra-Leone. <\/strong><\/span>The Western Cape\u2019s Health Department has pointed to falling immunisation rates among children as the leading cause of childhood disease outbreaks.<\/p>\n<p>The department noted that Cape Town\u2019s urban areas, including Khayelitsha, Mitchells Plain and Mfuleni, have reported increases in measles cases.<\/p>\n<p>It further warns that the nationwide decline in childhood vaccinations poses a serious public health risk and the rapid spread of measles, rubella and diphtheria highlights significant gaps in population immunity.<\/p>\n<p>Department spokesperson Monique Johnstone explained: \u201cWe urge parents not to assume their children are immune. Help us protect our children by taking them for their routine immunisations and signing consent forms when our school vaccination teams visit their schools.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Sierra-Leone<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Sierra-Leone. The Western Cape\u2019s Health Department has pointed to falling immunisation rates among children as the leading cause of childhood disease outbreaks. The department noted that Cape Town\u2019s urban areas, including Khayelitsha, Mitchells Plain and Mfuleni, have reported increases in measles cases. It further warns that the nationwide decline in childhood vaccinations poses [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":54722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[292],"class_list":["post-54723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-miscellaneous","tag-sierra-leone"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Health Officials Connect Low Vaccination to Outbreaks - Sierra Leone<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Western Cape\u2019s Health Department has pointed to falling immunisation rates among children as the leading cause of ch ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/health-officials-connect-low-vaccination-to-outbreaks\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Health Officials Connect Low Vaccination to Outbreaks\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Western Cape\u2019s Health Department has pointed to falling immunisation rates among children as the leading cause of ch ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/health-officials-connect-low-vaccination-to-outbreaks\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sierra Leone\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-07T18:16:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-07T20:21:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/sites\/16\/2026\/02\/sm_1770482684.050243.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/health-officials-connect-low-vaccination-to-outbreaks#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/health-officials-connect-low-vaccination-to-outbreaks\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Health Officials Connect Low Vaccination to Outbreaks\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-07T18:16:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-07T20:21:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/health-officials-connect-low-vaccination-to-outbreaks\"},\"wordCount\":132,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/health-officials-connect-low-vaccination-to-outbreaks#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/sites\/16\/2026\/02\/sm_1770482684.050243.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Sierra-Leone\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"miscellaneous\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/health-officials-connect-low-vaccination-to-outbreaks#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/health-officials-connect-low-vaccination-to-outbreaks\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/health-officials-connect-low-vaccination-to-outbreaks\",\"name\":\"Health Officials Connect Low Vaccination to Outbreaks - 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