Brazzaville, 10 December 2012 -- “Immunization is an important component of health systems and a key strategy to reducing child mortality, improve maternal health and combat diseases. It is for this reason that we need to work together as a region to reach all children with Immunization Services in Africa”.

This call for universal access to immunization services in Africa was made on Monday by Tanzania’s  Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Dr Hussein Mwinyi, while opening the fourth meeting of the Annual Regional Conference on Immunization (ARCI).  

The three-day meeting, being attended by more than 250 participants, provides a forum for the review of  regional immunization activities to control vaccine preventable diseases which cause nearly one million  childhood deaths in Africa every year.  

 Delegates represent different countries and over 20 organizations including United Nations agencies, bilateral and multilateral development institutions, Governmental and Non-Governmental Organizations and private sector organizations working to improve the health situation, particularly immunization coverage in Africa.

Dr Mwinyi told the meeting that both infants and senior citizens stood to benefit from immunization which he described as “one of the most successful and cost-effective health interventions”, preventing between two and three million deaths every year

He also alluded to the overall conference objective – which is to discuss how to strengthen the delivery of immunization services in all Member States in the African Region – and urged participants to be guided by the vision for the Decade of Vaccines (2011–2020): “a world in which all individuals and communities enjoy lives free from vaccine-preventable diseases”.

In his remarks, World Health Organization Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Sambo, commended Member States and partners for the progress made in strengthening national immunization programmes as well major developments recorded in the area of vaccines and immunization.

He illustrated this progress with success by countries in increasing access to essential  life-saving interventions (for example, the recent introduction by Tanzania of two new vaccines against rotavirus diarrhoea and pneumococcal pneumonia) and the endorsement by the 65th session of the World Health Assembly in May 2012 of the Global Vaccine Action Plan and the World Immunization Week.

Dr Sambo’s speech was delivered by the WHO Representative in Tanzania, Dr Rufaro Chatora.

Still on political commitment demonstrated by African Heads of State, the Regional Director said: “The leadership and unwavering commitment shown by His Excellency the President of the United Republic of Tanzania has allowed Tanzania to remain on track to achieving some of the health-related MDGs. The country has consistently maintained high immunization coverage above 90% in  the last 2 years. In Nigeria, His Excellency President Goodluck Jonathan has recently personally launched the "Saving One Million Lives Initiative" of which strengthened Routine Immunization is a core component.”

Reporting further on progress made in  the area of new vaccines introduction in the African Region over the past year, Dr Sambo said: “Today, over 100 million children and young adults in our region have received the conjugate meningococcal meningitis A vaccine. In the short time since this vaccine was introduced, the epidemiological picture of epidemic meningitis has changed. There has been a dramatic decline in incidence of Meningitis due to Men A and we are on course towards achieving the goal of eliminating Men A outbreaks as a major public health problem in the meningitis belt of our Region.

He acknowledged the support that Africa continued to receive from partner and philanthropic agencies saying that assistance from bodies such as GAVI and BMGF had increased access to new vaccines. Pneumococcal conjugate and Rotavirus vaccines have been introduced in 19 and seven countries respectively. Human Papilloma Virus vaccine is now introduced nationally in two countries while several others are conducting demonstration projects to inform national introduction.

On polio eradication efforts in the Region, Dr Sambo said: “When we last met one year ago, 12 countries in our region had active wild poliovirus transmission with a total number of 337 cases reported compared to 123 cases in only 2 countries this year. As a result of concerted efforts by Heads of State, Technical leaders and partners, countries that had experienced re-established transmission, including Angola and DR Congo have now had extended periods of time with no confirmed transmission. 

“Transmission has also significantly declined in Chad. WHO and the other Global Polio Eradication Initiative key partners have increased their capacity in these priority countries to finish the job. The goal of polio eradication is more than ever in our reach and countries need to sustain the current level of commitment and implement the already proven strategies.”

The Regional Director also touched on developments in the area of research saying that although the latest results from the malaria vaccine trials in infants were not as promising as the results released last year in young children “we are however encouraged with other innovative research efforts in the region including clinical trials conducted on candidate vaccines against TB and HIV-AIDS.”

The theme of this year’s ARCI meeting -- “Innovations, access and right for all to vaccines”  -- is reflected in  the conference agenda which includes presentations on strategies and innovations being executed to interrupt wild polio virus transmission as  well as innovations for strengthening immunization  systems in the WHO African Region.

Other major agenda items relate to the critical role new vaccines can play in reaching hard-to-reach populations as well as accelerating the control of vaccine-preventable diseases. 

The ARCI forum is being held concurrently with the 18th meeting of the African Regional Inter-Agency Coordination Meeting. Both meetings will be followed by a meeting of the Task Force on Immunization scheduled for 14 and 15 December at the same venue.  

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For more information, please contact:

Dr Deo Nshimirimana;   nshimirimanad [at] afro.who.int tel: +47-241-39203
Dr Neema Kileo, kileon [at] tz.afro.who.int; tel +255 6555 51804
Samuel T. Ajibola, ajibolas [at] afro.who.int tel: +47-241-39378