Kampala, 22 January 2013: As the third annual African Vaccination Week (AVW) got under way today in all of Africa Region’s countries, Uganda launched its beginning by holding a media briefing announcing the region’s intensified vaccination activities to protect children against diseases.

A launch media event was held in Kampala with the participation of Minister of State (Primary Health Care) Honourable Sarah Opendi Aceng, the World Health Organization Representative for Uganda, Dr Wondimagegnehu Alemu and other Ministry of Health officials. 

Honourable Opendi Aceng told reporters that Uganda was amongst Africa’s 10 countries with large numbers of unimmunized children. In response to reducing the large numbers of unimmunized children  WHO and UNICEF had introduce the Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP), which amongst other approaches focuses on Reaching Every Child in Every Community.

She however said Uganda was in the process of reenergising efforts to “ensure that every child and high risk groups like mothers are fully immunized with high quality and effective vaccines against target diseases according to recommended strategies.”
Dr Alemu who spoke at the same occasion on behalf of the WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Gomes Sambo appealed to all parents and caregivers to ensure that their children’s immunization status was up to date to avoid an accumulation of large numbers of unimmunized children in countries.

“Over the next seven days, participating countries will undertake a variety of activities that will: raise awareness on the life-saving value of immunization; seek to increase vaccination coverage;  reach underserved, marginalized and hard to reach populations with existing  and new high impact child survival packages and other life-savings interventions,” he said.

Amongst Africa’s achievements in immunization is an 89% reduction in measles deaths between 2000 and 2009, the elimination of maternal and neonatal tetanus in 30 out of 46 countries by 2012 and the introduction of new vaccines to protect children against more diseases. All African countries have introduced hepatitis B and HiB Vaccines except one. Many countries in the region are in the process of introducing Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV) and Rotavirus vaccine. Ten hyper epidemic countries within the meningitis belt of West and Central Africa also introduced the newly developed meningococcal A conjugate vaccine, vaccinating more than 103 million people.

African countries have almost eradicated polio, with Nigeria remaining the only endemic country in the region. The number of wild poliovirus cases had reduced from 350 cases in 12 countries in 2011 to 128 cases in 2012.

Countries in the African region have planned activities such as immunization sensitization meetings for influential leaders such as politicians and religious leaders, the media  and other stakeholders during the AVW.

The finale to the AVW commemoration in Uganda will be the national launch of the introduction of the Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV 10) in Iganga district on April 27th, 2013 into the routine vaccination schedule. High level delegates will officiate at the occasion.