Abuja, 5 December 2002 -- The 10th meeting of the Task Force on Immunization (TFI) in Africa and the 9th meeting of the Africa Regional Inter-Agency Coordination Committee (ARICC) ended Thursday in Abuja, Nigeria, with the adoption of a number of recommendations aimed at scaling up action for routine immunization, accelerated diseases surveillance and control, as well as the interruption of the wild poliovirus in the African Region by 2003.

The meeting recommended that in 2003 the WHO Regional Office for Africa (AFRO) should prioritize polio funding for field surveillance and laboratory work, especially in the light of diminishing funds. AFRO should also embark on a sensitisation drive to ensure that all stakeholders are informed of the requirements for polio eradication certification.

"TFI expects all countries of Africa without exception to reach certification level of Accute Flaccid Paralysis surveillance even at sub-national levels by 2003. To enable this, the necessary funding and technical support should be maintained", read one of the recommendations, which also urged continued support for laboratory activities to include other Expanded Programme of Immunization (EPI) diseases like measles and yellow fever.

With the projected interruption of wild poliovirus globally by 2003, and the eventual eradication of polio worldwide by 2005, the meeting recommended that WHO, in collaboration with partners, should establish a concrete and formal transition plan and budget for existing polio staff, and maintain and reorient existing structures for surveillance, logistics, social mobilization and other components of polio eradication for non-polio immunization and other health activities.

Delegates adopted a specific recommendation on Nigeria, known to be one of the last remaining reservoirs of wild poliovirus in the world. The recommendation called on the country's authorities and its development partners to strengthen capacity to improve immunization activities; ensure the availability and release of funds at least three months before the commencement of programmed activities, and ensure coordinated advocacy, promotion and political support for polio eradication in the endemic areas of the country, especially in Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Jigawa and Borno States, situated in the north of the country.

On routine immunization and accelerated diseases control, the meeting urged governments and partners to make more funds available for routine EPI programmes to countries in the Region --"especially the big four: Nigeria, Angola, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo "-- so as to maintain the gains and accelerate routine immunization activities.

It also recommended that more funds be mobilized for accelerated measles control maternal and neonatal tetanus elimination and for containing yellow fever in the so-called "yellow fever belt" stretching from West Africa to the Horn of Africa.

A recommendation on the integration of programmes called on Ministries of Health in the Region to set up joint fora comprising members of collaborating programmes like Malaria, EPI and Meningitis so as to allow for the regular monitoring and evaluation of programmes. Similar fora should also be established at sub-regional, regional and global levels between agencies and partners where they do not exist.

TFI was established in 1991 by AFRO, as a response to a greatly felt need that all was not well with the immunization programme in the Africa Region, and that a revitalization of the EPI/Immunization Systems was urgently and desperately needed. The Task Force was charged to guide the process by critically reviewing, on an annual basis, progress made, identify programme gaps and obstacles, and make necessary recommendations for action.

ARICC, made up principally of partners in the immunization programme, was charged to mobilize necessary resources.

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