In spite of the existence of a routine and catch-up vaccination campaigns, in African countries, statistics indicate that the coverage rate still falls below expectation. Health experts say there is every reason to believe that an important proportion of the targeted group (women and children) is yet to be touched by the campaign at the national level. Taking into consideration the porous nature of the African borders coupled with the frequent movement of people an epidemic in one country can easily be spread to the other. The Representative of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr Charlotte Faty Ndiaye says to minimise the number of cases of the target population not touched by the programme, WHO and other development partners have decided to launch an African Vaccination Week (AVW) in order to reinforce the vaccination programmes in the African continent as well as to raise awareness on the importance, need and rights of each individual especially women and children to be protected against diseases that could be curb through vaccination.
The focus of AVW is to strengthen national immunisation programmes in the African Region by raising awareness on the value and importance of immunisation, increasing vaccination coverage and uptake of new and existing vaccines while at the same time prioritising service provision for hard-to-reach areas. In a note, the WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Sambo, reiterated the importance of AVW, illustrating the challenge of access to immunization services with measles, saying that although mortality due to the disease in the African Region was reduced by 89 per cent between 2000 and 2008, in 2009, an estimated 3.6 million children were not reached at all by immunisation services while approximately 6 million did not get all the recommended vaccinations needed to protect them. Dr Luis Sambo stressed that, this therefore continues to threaten recent gains made in both measles elimination and polio eradication in the region.
Last year, only six Member States in the Region were on track to achieving the fourth Millennium Development Goal (MDG) due partially to poor or inadequate access to immunisation, which is considered one of the most cost-effective public health interventions, and one which is widely recognised as critical to achieving MDG4. With a strong government leadership and effective collaboration between WHO, UNICEF and other key partners, the AVW was launched yesterday, May 12 in Cameroon alongside Semaine d’Actions de Santé et de Nutrition Infantile et Maternelle. The week, which is expected to contribute to success in reducing child morbidity and mortality in the region, will end on May 15, 2011.
