Africa is seeing a surge in outbreaks of diseases that can be averted with vaccines over the past year, the World Health Organisation warned on Thursday.
It said that almost 17, 500 cases of measles were recorded in the African region between January and March 2022, marking a 400 percent increase compared with the same period in 2021.
Twenty African countries reported measles outbreaks in the first quarter of this year, eight more than that in the first three months of 2021.
Outbreaks of other vaccine-preventable diseases have also become more common with twenty-four countries confirming outbreaks of a variant of polio in 2021, which is four more than in 2020. In 2021, 13 countries reported new yellow fever outbreaks in the African region, compared to nine in 2020 and three in 2019.
Inequalities in accessing vaccines, and disruptions by the COVID-19 pandemic including a huge strain on health system capacities impaired routine immunisation services in many African countries and forced the suspension of vaccination drives.
“The rise in outbreaks of other vaccine-preventable diseases is a warning sign. As Africa works hard to defeat COVID-19, we must not forget other health threats. Health systems could be severely strained not only by COVID-19 but by other diseases,” said Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO Regional Director for Africa, during a virtual conference.
“Vaccines are at the heart of a successful public health response, and as countries restore services, routine immunization must be at the core of revived and resilient health systems.”
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Two doses of the measles vaccine provided on schedule results in long-lasting protection against the potentially deadly disease. Countries are expected to attain and maintain measles vaccination coverage of 95 percent with two doses to reach measles elimination.
In 2019, six countries in the African region attained 95 percent coverage with first dose measles vaccination, while only three met this target in 2020, according to estimates by WHO and UNICEF.
To urgently scale up coverage and protect children, WHO said it is making partnerships to support African countries to carry out catch-up routine vaccination campaigns, with more than 90 percent of the 38 African countries responding to a global survey reporting that they implemented at least one routine catch-up immunization campaign in the second half of 2021.
Some countries have successfully integrated other critical immunization campaigns with COVID-19 vaccination. For example, Ghana integrated COVID-19 vaccination with yellow fever campaigns in December 2021 to curb an outbreak that erupted a month earlier.
Nigeria recently launched a vaccine scale-up strategy which guides the integration of routine immunisation with COVID-19 vaccination for mothers and their babies.
Mass vaccination campaigns are also boosting COVID-19 vaccine uptake. Between January and April, the percentage of Africans fully vaccinated against the virus rose to 17.1 percent from 11.1 percent.
