WHO’s contributors are supporting the “Big Catch-Up” – a push to get countries back on track with vaccinations after disruptions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters and armed conflicts.
WHO estimates that 25 million children missed out on vaccination in 2021, six million more than in 2019 and the highest number since 2009.
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To mark World Immunization Week (24-30 April), we visit campaigns to stop flood-related cholera outbreaks in Kenya, Malawi, and Mozambique; polio and measles campaigns in Syria in the aftermath of a massive earthquake; and the quest to reach “zero-dose” children caught in Somalia’s years-long drought.
This issue celebrates vaccination successes in Africa, where a grant from the European Union helped push a group of countries with very low COVID-19 vaccination coverage closer to, or in some cases above, the continent’s average.
Also read about stopping COVID-19 in the Americas, HPV vaccination to end cervical cancer in Sierra Leone, Montenegro’s Health Caravan project and work to vaccinate vulnerable people ahead of Lao PDR’s National Games.
This month, WHO and partners are working to administer polio and measles vaccinations to 800 000 small children in the northwest of the country where a February earthquake damaged or destroyed 67 health facilities.
The 10-day campaign involves about 3 000 health workers, many of whom have themselves been affected by the massive quake.
“The earthquakes have already disrupted so many lives and livelihoods … vaccinating children under the age of 5, we can prevent a secondary disaster in the form of a disease outbreak,” said Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean.
Close to 100 000 people newly displaced by the disaster are living in overcrowded camps, where insufficient clean water and sanitation have heightened the risk for the spread of infectious diseases.
Sierra Leone introduces HPV vaccination to end cervical cancer
An old adage in Sierra Leone says that “what goes on under the cloth should remain under the cloth.”
Most women are not willing to be screened, or even talk about cervical cancer, health authorities say, although it is the country’s leading cause of cancer death among women.
But the government has introduced another way to fight the disease. Starting this year, girls ages 9 to 15 can receive the vaccination for human papillomavirus (HPV), a sexually transmitted infection that causes more than 95% of cervical cancer cases.
WHO, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and UNICEF are supporting the work.
WHO worked with the government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic to shore up vaccinations in the province hosting the country’s annual National Games, reaching out to villages where previous vaccination campaigns had not been well received.
“The National Games provide an amazing opportunity to come together and see the best of Lao’s athletes,” said WHO Health Emergency Specialist Satoko Otsu, “but also an opportunity for the spread of COVID-19 and other diseases.”
The campaign’s focus was to administer routine catch-up vaccinations to babies and COVID-19 vaccinations to at-risk groups such as people with disabilities, older people and ethnic communities. The effort reached nearly 39 000 people.
“The things that seemed to be the most persuasive in changing people’s views, were simple – talking to them in a non-hierarchical way, spending time to discuss the vaccine and listen to concerns and views, and identify and persuade influencers – whether village representatives, religious leaders, or close neighbours and friends,” said WHO Community Engagement Team Lead Shogo Kubota.
