UGANDA: The Value of Immunisation Programmes
GAVI, the Global Alliance for Vaccinations and Immunisation, secured pledges of 4.3 billion dollars from donors in London on Jun. 13 with the aim of securing funding to ensure life-saving vaccinations for every child on the planet.
The alliance, which includes international relief agencies, charities, drug companies and national governments, was seeking 3.7 billion dollars in pledges to increase access to new and underused vaccines around the world.
As many as two million children - overwhelmingly in low-income countries - die each year from diseases which could be prevented by vaccinations such as pneumonia and diarrhoea. GAVI's programmes have already immunised well over a quarter million children in the past 10 years, and if the pledges from the London conference are honoured, the money will allow the alliance to reach a further 243 million by 2015.
Thanks in large part to GAVI, the past decade has seen renewed attention to developing vaccines against diseases affecting the world's poorest, including meningitis, pneumococcal disease and malaria. Among the organisations under the alliance umbrella is the Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI), whose investments have supported a breakthrough in prevention of one of the world's most dangerous diseases.
Malaria vaccines are a long-overdue means to prevent infection and work towards eradication of the disease. The eradication of malaria in the developed world has been cited as one reason developing a vaccine previously received little attention from pharmaceutical companies or government research facilities.
The debut of a first vaccine against malaria, for example, could now be less than five years away — final testing is under way in seven countries. Yet developing an effective vaccine is only part of the challenge — effectively integrating it into public health will require careful planning and execution.
The recent history of Africa's immunisation programmes - from the re-emergence of polio in West and Central Africa, to the persistence of meningitis and infant pneumonia - is littered with promising solutions that have failed to have the expected impact. Against a background of poverty and conflict, vaccination campaigns have been hampered by weak infrastructure, insufficient staff or funding, and even popular resistance to vaccinations.
Across the continent, there is new attention to the practical requirements of effective immunisation campaigns. Dr Seraphine Adibaku, head of Uganda's malaria control programme, says his country has already started raising popular awareness of the coming availability of a malaria vaccine, with the most recent meeting of officials from the ministry of health and developers of the vaccine and other stake holders held in May.
'We are conscious not to cause excitement because it can lead to undesirable consequences but we have to tell the people that a vaccine could be here sooner than later,' says Adibaku.
Uganda is banking on using infrastructure like ware houses and refrigerators from the Uganda National Expanded Program on Immunisation, which is already in place and has been used on previous immunisation programmes, to roll out the malaria vaccine. Adibaku says training will be given to vaccinators on handling the new vaccine with funding from GAVI, all of which shall be in line with the national vaccination policy.
Adibaku has questions about the vaccine: 'We do not know yet for how long the vaccine will offer protection. Do you get protection for six months, one year, or for the rest of your life? These are some on the questions not answered yet.' He says for a vaccine to be effective, it should offer a high level of protection - between 80 and 90 percent - provide long-lasting resistance, and be affordable.
© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service