Campaign to be completed thanks to first-ever instance of south-south vaccine supply

Brazzaville/Bamako, 11 April 2008 -- A week-long campaign to vaccinate 5.7 million people across the southern half of Mali begins Saturday in the country and, for the first time ever, a mass vaccination campaign will be undertaken thanks to "south-south" vaccine supply: South America's only manufacturer of Yellow Fever vaccine, Bio Manguinhos of Brazil, will be supplying half of the vaccine necessary.

"The fact that we have now three manufacturers of WHO pre-qualified Yellow Fever vaccine around the world means that we are much more able to meet supply demands both for emergency and routine vaccination, and this first mass shipment of vaccine from one developing country to another is proof of that," said Dr Adamou Yada, Regional Adviser for Communicable Disease Surveillance and Response in WHO's African Region.

Three million doses are coming from the Brazilian company, while the other three million doses will be provided by Sanofi Pasteur - one of the other two WHO pre-qualified manufacturers of Yellow Fever vaccine.

The vaccine campaign will take a week and cover the southern half of the country: 33 districts in total, all south of 15 degrees North latitude, will be targeted.

The targeted areas were singled out after a risk assessment showed that there was minimal risk of Yellow Fever in the northern part of the country - which is largely desert and where, consequently, the ecological conditions for Yellow fever virus transmission to humans are not present - while several districts in the west of the country had already been vaccinated. In total, 5.7 million people in these 33 districts will be vaccinated by local health teams and volunteers, with extensive field support provided by WHO, UNICEF and the Mali branch of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

"Having such a thorough and accurate risk assessment - which was funded by GAVI - greatly reduces both the cost and the complexity of ensuring that we reach vaccination coverage levels of 80% in all at-risk areas of Mali, without doing unnecessary vaccination," explains Dr William Perea, head of WHO's Yellow Fever Programme at WHO headquarters in Geneva.

Current vaccination coverage rates in the provinces in question are estimated to be 48% in those districts where children under age 15 were vaccinated in 2006, while the rates are estimated to be much, much lower in districts not covered in 2006. The vaccination campaign is set to last one week, from 12-18 April. Once the campaign is complete, the risk of Yellow Fever outbreaks in Mali will be greatly reduced for a minimum of 10 years - and for many more, if routine immunization programmes include Yellow Fever vaccination and are continued over the long-term.

Mali's mass vaccination campaign is part of the Yellow Fever Initiative's efforts, with $58 million worth of support from GAVI, to drastically reduce the numbers at risk from Yellow Fever in West Africa. Mali is the third country, after Togo and Senegal, to undertake a national preventive vaccination campaign as part of the Initiative, with other countries due to follow suit as soon as sufficient vaccine is available.

Yellow Fever is an acute, haemorrhagic, viral disease - transmitted to humans by infected mosquitoes. Infection may result in no illness, equally illness may range from mild to severe; 20-50% of those with severe illness will die of the disease. There is no known specific antiviral therapy against YF, although the disease can be prevented by the YF vaccine , which provides immunity for at least 10 years.

Because of its severity, even a single case (such as Mali reported in 2007) is a public health concern. Yellow Fever is endemic in tropical regions of Africa and South America where 44 countries (33 in Africa and 11 in South America) are considered to be at-risk. The public health threat from the disease is removed only when vaccination rates in at-risk areas are at least 60-80%. Currently, 610 million people are considered to be at-risk from the disease in Africa.

The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization is a partnership of public and private sector resources with a single, shared focus: to improve child health in the poorest countries by extending the reach and quality of immunisation coverage within strengthened health services. These efforts are directed through the financing mechanisms of the GAVI Fund and the work of the Geneva-based GAVI Secretariat which channel funding, optimise product availability and market pricing, and coordinate the field support necessary to plan and implement programmes in the world’s poorest countries.

The 12 countries taking part on the Yellow Fever Initiative are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.

The ministries of Health of these 12 countries are being supported financially and technically by a Yellow Fever partnership which was launched in February 2006 and now includes WHO, UNICEF, GAVI, Médecins Sans Frontières, IFRC, the Association pour la Médecine Préventive (AMP), the Programme for Appropriate Technology (PATH), the European Union Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO), the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) and the Institut Pasteur. The partnership continues to take on new members.

The 12 countries taking part on the Yellow Fever Initiative are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.

The ministries of Health of these 12 countries are being supported financially and technically by a Yellow Fever partnership which was launched in February 2006 and now includes WHO, UNICEF, GAVI, Médecins Sans Frontières, IFRC, the Association pour la Médecine Préventive (AMP), the Programme for Appropriate Technology (PATH), the European Union Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO), the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) and the Institut Pasteur. The partnership continues to take on new members.

The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization is a partnership of public and private sector resources with a single, shared focus: to improve child health in the poorest countries by extending the reach and quality of immunisation coverage within strengthened health services. These efforts are directed through the financing mechanisms of the GAVI Fund and the work of the Geneva-based GAVI Secretariat which channel funding, optimise product availability and market pricing, and coordinate the field support necessary to plan and implement programmes in the world’s poorest countries.

For more information contact:

Gregory Härtl; email: hartlg [at] who.int (hartlg[at]who[dot]int)

mobile: +41 79 203 6715;

fax: +41 22 791 4721

Samuel Ajibola: e-mail ajibolas [at] afro.who.int (ajibolas[at]afro[dot]who[dot]int);

tel: +47 241 39378;

mobile + 242 6537022