….Africa needs to vaccinate 33m children to achieve 2030 global immunization goals
By Joyce Remi-Babayeju
WHO Country Representative to Nigeria, Dr. Walter Mulombo has said that an estimated 6.2 million children in Nigeria , between 2019 and 2022 were unvaccinated because of the negative consequences of COVID-19 pandemic.
Mulombo dropped this hint today at the World Regional WHO Medial Round Table meeting in Abuja today to mark the African Vaccination Week, AVW, celebration 2023 with the theme, ” The Big Catch Up”.
Reaching these children would require renewed and intensified efforts by Government and partners, he emphasized.
WHO further stated, pro- activeness of the Government of Nigeria and the National Primary Health Care Agency for implementing the Optimized Outreach Sessions, integration of Routine Immunization during COVID-19 vaccination, Measles and Yellow Fever Supplementary Immunization Activities. These are key for the reduction in the high burden of zero dose children in Nigeria and aligns the theme for the 2023 AVW celebration.
Also he disclosed that Africa needs to vaccinate 33 million children between 2023 and 2025 to put the continent back on track to achieve the 2030 global immunization goals which includes reducing morbidity and mortality from vaccine-preventable diseases.
He noted that due to the African Region the unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the African Region routine immunization services the number of unmet vaccination unmet children rose by 16% between 2019 and 2021 to 33 million representing nearly half the global estimate.
He hinted that in an effort to break the bottlenecks in vaccines and health care delivery, African Heads of State endorsed a declaration aimed at revamping and scaling up routine immunization across the continent during an African Union Summit in February, 2023.
” To realize this declaration, this year African Vaccination Week and World Immunization Week, from 24–30 April, with the theme “The Big Catch-Up” has been announced,”
‘This is a global push by WHO and partners to intensify efforts to reach children who missed vaccinations, as well as to restore and strengthen routine immunization programmes.”
. The Big Catch Up” is actually a year-long campaign aiming to reverse the serious setbacks in routine immunization, Mulombo said.
WHO called on community leaders to take responsibility to organize and participate fully in the conduct of immunization sessions including monitoring uptake of vaccines in the community.
As well as Traditional, Religious Leaders and Civil Society Groups to mobilize the community to always demand and access immunization services.
