SA measles cases hit 3,462 as unvaccinated infants triple

South Africa has recorded 3,462 confirmed measles cases since January, with the majority among children aged 1-14 as vaccination rates continue to fall.

South Africa has recorded 3, 462 laboratory-confirmed measles cases since January 2026, with outbreaks reported in the Western Cape, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, and Northern Cape, among children aged one to 14 years as vaccination rates continue to fall.

The Department of Health made the disclosure in a media statement on Wednesday.

It called for urgent action to halt declining immunisation coverage and prevent outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases that could reverse decades of public health gains, including significant reductions in under-five and infant mortality achieved since the mid-2000s.

Department spokesperson Foster Mohale said the proportion of unvaccinated infants - children under one year old who receive no vaccinations - had increased from 12.1% in 2017 to an alarming 36.3% between January and April 2026.

This effectively triples the number of completely unvaccinated children and leaves hundreds of thousands of infants at risk of life-threatening illnesses, he said.

Mohale said routine immunisation coverage had fallen severely across all 52 districts in the country.

“First-dose coverage among children under one year dropped from 87% in 2021 to 67% in 2025.”

“Coverage of the Hexavalent (6-in-1) infant vaccine declined from 87% to 60.5% over the same period.”

Mohale said that at current rates, South Africa is unlikely to reach the World Health Organization’s critical 90% coverage threshold for childhood immunisation.

Unless urgent interventions are implemented, parents and families should take their unvaccinated children to health facilities for immunisation, he said.

He said the consequences of declining coverage include the resurgence of serious vaccine-preventable diseases, erosion of community, or herd immunity, and higher rates of long-term disability and death among infants.

“This is no longer a theoretical risk because active outbreaks are occurring in multiple provinces across the country.”

He revealed the number of measles cases reported since the start of the year.