Luanda, - Task Force on Immunisation Chairman Prof Francis Nkrumah called on African governments to make concerted efforts in political and resources commitment towards immunization to rid the continent of vaccine preventable diseases, at the opening of the 11th Meeting of the Task Force on Immunization (TFI) in Africa and the 10th annual African Regional Inter agency Coordination Committee (ARICC) in Luanda, Angola on the December 02, 2003.

Professor Nkrumah presented five major challenges facing immunization activities in Africa as follows; strengthening routine immunization, interruption of polio transmission, financial sustainability of immunization activities in the region, integration of all programmes and activities as a core activity of health care package and the introduction of new vaccines into the routine Expanded Programme on Immunization.

The chairman of TFI for the past 11 years, Professor Nkrumah said Immunisation in Africa was lagging behind other regions, despite the fact that many successes had been scored. He said routine immunization was at the core of immunization activities calling on its strengthening in the low coverage areas in the Central bloc and in the Big Four countries; Angola, DRC, Ethiopia and Nigeria. He called on initiatives such as Reach Every District to be introduced to guarantee that every child in all districts has access to quality and sustainable immunization services. He urged the participants to review strategies employed in motivating human resources and find ways of capacity building in order to create more demand for immunization services. Routine Immunisation whose coverage for the region only reaches 60 percent is still a far cry from the 80percent target set by TFI last year.

Prof Nkrumah said a holistic approach to routine immunization inclusive of infrastructure expansion, logistics, safety and vaccine supply management review, the improvement of data quality and reliability was essential in meeting the routine immunization targets for the region.

The biggest challenge facing the region according to Professor Nkrumah is the interruption of polio transmission in Nigeria, that is spreading unabated to recently polio free countries in West Africa. Before the Nigerian anti-Oral Polio Vaccine campaign there had been milestones realized in polio eradication regionally, where the polio endemic countries in Africa were reduced from 43 in 1993 to two in 2003. The total number of polio cases which stood at more than 4000 in 1993 was reduced to 286 ten years later due to the polio Eradication Initiative undertaken by WHO and partners.

According to Prof Nkrumah African governments have to assume the responsibility of sustaining immunization services in their countries, by making political and financial commitment to disease control activities. "There is need for political and resource commitment by African governments prioritizing immunization activities which leads to child survival," he added. Equally he called on partner to forge an effective alliance with countries to guarantee long-term sustainability of immunization in the region.

On the introduction of new vaccines into the EPI, Prof Nkrumah encouraged the meeting to advise governments on issues of financial sustainability, combination of vaccines and vaccine supply before they introduce new vaccines. In addition he called on the participants to seek ways of ensuring that immunization was integrated in to the comprehensive, affordable, acceptable and sustainable health care delivery systems within the countries.

Nearly 200 participants drawn from EPI partners including, WHO and UNICEF staff, development agencies and several Ministries of Health are attending the four-day meeting, which is expected to come up with recommendations for strengthening EPI activities for the coming year. The TFI was created in 1993 by the WHOAFRO Regional Director to contribute to the strengthening of national immunization systems in Africa.

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