The 7th African Vaccination Week will be celebrated from 24 to 30 April 2017 with the theme “Vaccines protect everyone, get vaccinated!” #AVW17. The celebration of this year’s event coincides with the 1st anniversary of the Ministerial Conference on Immunization in Africa resulted in a first-ever Addis Declaration on Immunization (ADI) signed by Ministers of Health or Heads of Delegation which includes 10 commitments and 4 calls to action and endorsed by head of states on 31st January 2017.
It also coincides with the halfway point of Regional Immunization Strategic Plan (RISP) endorsed by 47 Member States in 2014 – which aims to prevent millions of deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases by 2020 through universal access to immunization.
African Vaccination Week is an annual event celebrated during the last week of April in synchronization with the other WHO Regions and the World Immunization Week (WIW. It is led and coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Africa and implemented by countries. The goal of the AVW is to strengthen immunization programmes in the African Region by increasing awareness of the importance of every person’s (particularly every child and woman) need and right to be protected from vaccine-preventable diseases.
It aims at keeping immunization high on the national and regional agendas through advocacy and partnerships. It also promotes delivery of other high impact lifesaving interventions. The over-arching slogan of AVW is “Vaccinated communities, Healthy communities”.