14 December 2009 -- The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Gomes Sambo, has called on countries in the African Region to intensify efforts to combine the benefits of vaccination technology with other child health interventions in order to reduce illness and death of children under-five years of age.

Dr Sambo was addressing delegates at the First African Regional Conference on Immunization which opened in Harare, Zimbabwe, on Monday, 14 December 2009. He pointed out that efforts by Member States to reduce child mortality are yielding dividends and cited the decline of under-five mortality in sub-Saharan Africa from 184 per 1000 in 1990 to 144 per 1000 in 2008.

“Despite this progress, sub-Saharan Africa still accounted for 51% of all under-five deaths globally in 2008. The decline in child deaths in sub-Saharan Africa is still inadequate to achieve MDG4 target by 2015,” he said.

The recent success story of the reduction of measles deaths by 92% in the Region can only be sustained if there is adequate funding for immunization activities, said Dr Sambo, adding that the Region is facing funding challenges in sustaining the gains in measles elimination.

The Regional Director stated that routine immunization coverage in the Region has increased during the last ten years from 40% to 74% as of December 2008. However, the overall increase in routine immunization coverage masks disparities between and within countries. He said it was the countries with large numbers of unvaccinated children that still had poliovirus circulating and urged countries to be vigilant

On the introduction of new vaccines, Dr Sambo said, 45 countries had introduced the Hepatitis B Vaccine, 40 were offering Haemophilus Influenza type B vaccine and two had brought in Pneumoccocal Conjugate Vaccine into their routine immunization services. The other vaccines to be introduced in the Region are conjugate meningococcal A Vaccine in meningitis-prone countries, rotavirus vaccine and human papilloma virus vaccine.

Dr Sambo lauded the Federal Government of Nigeria for the significant progress that the country had registered in addressing the resurgence of wild poliovirus transmission in 2008 and early 2009.

“As a result of this, transmission of wild poliovirus in Nigeria is at its lowest level ever. It is critical that this progress should be consolidated and sustained. It is gratifying to learn that the national authorities in Nigeria intend to use the experience in improving the quality and coverage of polio eradication activities to strengthen routine immunization and primary health care delivery in the medium and long term” he said.

The number of countries with polio outbreaks following wild poliovirus importations increased from 13 in 2008 to 19 in 2009. The Regional Director commended efforts by the affected countries to mount effective response to these importations and called on the Region to make every effort to stop poliovirus transmission in order to concentrate on other public health priorities.

In his opening address, Zimbabwe’s Health Minister, Dr Henry Madzorera, said the decline in immunization coverage in some countries in the Region was due to lack of capacity of countries to incorporate new changes, innovations and technologies, exodus of human resources, competing priorities, reduction in government health budgets and non-utilization of data to improve health systems performance.

The three-day conference is being attended by over 150 participants from WHO headquarters, all the WHO regional offices, the Ministers of Health of Angola, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nigeria, other agencies of the United Nations as well as international partners in immunization.

For more information contact:

Wendy Julias
Communications Officer
WHO, Zimbabwe
Tel: +2634746000
Email: juilasw [at] zw.afro.who.int

Zorodzai Machekanyanga,
Social Mobilisation Officer
WHO, Zimbabwe
Tel: +2634746000
Email: machekanyangaz [at] zw.afro.who.int

Collins Boakye-Agyemang
Communications And Advocacy Officer
WHO Regional Office, Brazzaville, Congo
Tel:+ 4724139420
E-mail: Boakyec [at] afro.who.int