South African Vaccination & Immunisation Centre (SAVIC)
South African Vaccination & Immunisation Centre (SAVIC)
SAVIC advocates for vaccines through engaging with health professionals and the general public, with the aim of:
• strengthening immunisation programmes in South Africa, through providing vaccinology short courses to in-service healthcare workers, academics, scientists and other health professionals working in the field of vaccine-preventable diseases;
• increasing public confidence in vaccination through continuing to provide an information service on SAVIC’s website at https://savic.ac.za/contact-us/;
• advocating for vaccination through: the SAVIC website; SAVIC social media pages; online webinars and face-to-face presentations; interviews that are published in online and hardcopy newspapers and magazines; and television interviews;
• increasing vaccination coverage by organising annual infant vaccination catch-up campaigns, influenza vaccination campaigns and vaccine advocacy campaigns.
HPV awareness Campaign
The National Department of Health’s 2025 health calendar identifies the second round of HPV vaccinations as taking place from 4 August to 28 September 2025. In alignment with this national effort, we launched a campaign aimed at bringing HPV vaccination education directly to university students and staff across Tshwane. In collaboration with key partners, including SAVIC, Universal Healthcare, MSD, the NDoH-EPI, and other dedicated stakeholders we ensured that this initiative extended beyond vaccination support alone. It became an educational movement: one that informs, empowers, and uplifts communities with life-saving knowledge and improved access to vaccination services.
This year’s awareness campaign was hosted at two institutions: Tshwane University of Technology, where we recorded 128 participant engagements, and Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, where 131 students took part
The aim of the campaign was to:
• To empowering students and staff with HPV vaccine education
• To raise awareness regarding cervical cancer prevention and the importance of early detection.
Between the two universities, the campaign reached a significant number of university community, of these 259 participated in our educational Quiz titled: Think you know HPV? Take our quick quiz based on the HPV campaign posters around campus. Participants won prizes if they got all answers correct in the shortest space of time.
Influenza campaign
As part of SAVIC’s annual influenza vaccination coverage improvement drive, we conducted a campaign aimed at increasing flu vaccine uptake within the SMU community. The Department of Health, through the Tshwane District Expanded Programme on Immunisation, allocated a total of 240 flu vaccines to our site and all doses were successfully utilised.
Ongoing engagement and awareness efforts are expected to further increase participation in the coming days. We remain committed to ensuring full utilisation of allocated vaccines and to protecting our community against influenza infections.
SAVIC’s annual vaccination catch-up campaigns were held in collaboration with
City of Tshwane EPI, North West Department of Health (Madibeng Sub-District), Aurum Institute, South African
Association of Hospital and Institutional Pharmacists, and the Pharmaceutical Society of South Africa (PSSA). A
total of 801 community members presented themselves or their children for PHC services at various community
outreach centres in Far East Rand, Mamelodi, Hammanskraal, Brits and Skeerpoort. Of these, 400 children
received influenza vaccines, while 160 received missed scheduled EPI vaccines, deworming agents or vitamin A
supplements.
In recognition of these achievements, Mr Mahlaba received the Vice Chancellor’s Excellence in Community
Engagement Award at the SMU Excellence Awards Ceremony on 29 November 2024. To celebrate Pharmacy
Month, Prof Meyer accepted an invitation from the Pharmacy Month Working Group, consisting of NDoH, SAPC,
different sectors of the PSSA and the Independent Community Pharmacy Association, as the main speaker in a
webinar to introduce Pharmacy Month to pharmacists across the country. Furthermore, she accepted an invitation
from the Brits Mediclinic, to speak at their Pharmacy Month celebrations attended by local pharmacists.
