Conference on immunisation underway in Addis Ababa
African leaders, including ministers of health and finance, have gathered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for the first-ever ministerial conference on immunisation in Africa.
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Hosted by the World Health Organisation’s Regional Offices for Africa and for the Eastern Mediterranean, in conjunction with the African Union, the landmark meeting offers a powerful platform for governments to demonstrate their commitment to expanding access to life-saving vaccines across the continent.
The Health Minister, Mr Alex Segbefia, who is attending the conference, will at the end join other African health and finance ministers to sign and officially adopt a Ministerial Declaration to renew, reaffirm and intensify their countries’ commitment to universal access to immunisation.
Together with advocates, technical experts, policymakers, donors and journalists, the ministers are discussing issues on sustainable financing for immunisation, the role of communities in coverage and demand, building stronger systems to improve child health, and leveraging regional partnerships to ensure high and equitable vaccination coverage.
Tremendous gains
In her address to open the conference, the WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Dr Matshidiso Moeti, noted that in less than a generation, Africa had made tremendous gains in increasing access to immunisation and driving down child deaths.
“Vaccines are a major reason that the rate of child deaths across sub-Saharan Africa plummeted by 54 per cent from 1990 to 2015,” she said.
Effective new vaccines for pneumonia and rotavirus, the two leading infectious killers of children, are being rolled out in many African countries and there are great successes in the fight against polio and meningitis.
“Just several years ago, polio threatened the future of millions of children across Africa. Today, thanks to international partnerships, well-designed immunisation campaigns, and the tireless efforts of health workers, local communities and national governments, the continent has not had a case of wild polio virus in more than a year and a half,” Dr Moeti stated.
Job not done
Despite the historic milestone, she said, the job was not yet done as countries would need to stay vigilant in polio eradication efforts so that the African region could be officially certified polio-free next year.
She further said the continent’s progress on immunisation was in danger of stagnating as the region still lagged behind in access to vaccines and one in five children did not receive the vaccines they needed.
“Put simply, health systems in Africa remain under-resourced and under-equipped to reach all children with vaccines and, often, their weak health systems are put under further strain by armed conflicts, natural disasters, and the emergence of new health challenges, such as last year’s Ebola outbreak and the current Zika outbreak,” Dr Dr Moeti added.
She called for leadership at all levels to address persistent barriers in vaccine delivery including increasing domestic investment, supply chain management, community engagement, and data monitoring and evaluation.
In his address, Dr Ala Alwan, Regional Director of the Eastern Mediterranean region, said despite the political turmoil in the region, outstanding progress had been made towards maintaining high routine immunisation coverage rates and introducing new vaccines.
The Eastern Mediterranean region still faced geo-political and security challenges which threatened vaccine procurement and delivery, he said, and commended African countries such as Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia, who fully funded their own immunisation programmes.
Dr Alwan emphasised that their progress offered models for countries that were not eligible for Gavi support and for those that would be graduating from Gavi support in the near future.