The Christmas party had been planned two months ago. The youngsters came dressed in their best clothes. But before they could start their festivities, they had to sit in the blazing sun for three hours because the venue had been double-booked.
The doctors at Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital's Perinatal HIV Research Unit see thousands of children each year. This year they wanted to give their patients an extra special Christmas party.
"We had booked the hospital's hall two months ago. But two weeks ago, we were told we had to cancel because Health MEC Brian Hlongwa was going to launch a vaccine there at the same time," said a doctor, who did not want to be named.
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"We were quite taken aback because we had booked the place and our preparations were on track. And of course we had told all the patients and their parents about the party - we couldn't just cancel."
The doctor said they were then told they could still have their party - but at 10am.
"So that's what we told all our children. And they all arrived at 10am sharp, but nearly three hours later the MEC was still busy. All our guests had to sit outside in the hot sun and wait for them to finish."
When the guests started to become impatient, the doctors confronted the government officials and an argument ensued.
"We just wanted to start our party. The kids were sitting on a field. They called us racists. How can we be racist when we've worked so hard getting sponsors and organising a party for 1 000 children? Most of them had probably never had a party," said the doctor.
Eventually the party did get started - but without Christmas decorations and a Christmas tree.
"They are having such a wonderful time now. You'd never say there was such chaos earlier. We've managed to feed everyone and later we'll dish out the presents," the doctor said.
Phumelele Kaunda, spokesperson for Hlongwa, denied there had been a problem. "We had our launch and afterwards the kids had their party. There were no arguments - I was there," she said.
Hlongwa was launching vaccines against streptococcus pneumoniae and the rotavirus. The new vaccines would significantly reduce the burden of the illnesses and strengthen the Health Department's expanded programme of immunisation, according to a copy of the MEC's speech. They would also drastically reduce HIV-related deaths among infants.
"Of the invasive diseases, pneumonia is the most common and carries a high mortality rate, especially among infants," he said.
Pneumonia kills 2-million people globally each year, mainly children under the age of 2 and the elderly.
"The large majority of those deaths are from poor and developing countries," said Hlongwa. Incidence rates in Africa ranged from 300 to 779 per 100 000 for children under 5.
He said studies had proved that vaccine use resulted in a significant reduction in invasive pneumo disease-resistant strains. In South Africa these showed a decline of 67% in penicillin resistance and 56% in bactrim resistance.
Rotavirus was the most common diarrhoeal pathogen in children worldwide, with 125-million cases of gastroenteritis reported globally and 440 000 deaths a year, mainly in poor or less developed countries.
At Dr George Mukhari Hospital in Ga-Rankuwa, rotavirus was responsible for 18 000 out-patient paediatric visits a year.
Hlongwa said studies in the United States found rotavirus vaccines had resulted in a huge disease reduction within a year. - Sapa
- This article was originally published on page 2 of The Star on December 13, 2008
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