The last week of this month (April), has been set aside as World Immunisation Week. Every year there are a number of activities usually planned in more than 180 countries, including vaccination campaigns, training workshops, round-table discussions, public information campaigns, etc to raise awareness about the importance of being immunised.
For us in Guyana, this special Week provides an opportunity to remind families and communities in general how effective vaccines can be, and to encourage people to take action to ensure that more children, and increasingly people in other age groups, are immunised against deadly and debilitating diseases.
Immunisation is the process whereby a person is made immune or resistant to an infectious disease, typically by the administration of a vaccine. In essence, immunisation is a proven tool for controlling and eliminating life-threatening infectious diseases.
It is also one of the most successful and cost-effective health interventions and prevents between two and three million deaths annually from diseases such as diphtheria, measles, pertussis, pneumonia, polio, rotavirus diarrhoea, rubella and tetanus.
According to World Health Organisation, last year, immunisation led to some notable wins in the fight against polio, rubella and maternal and neonatal tetanus, but these were isolated wins. Polio was eliminated in one country, tetanus in three, and rubella in one geographical region, hence the challenge now is to continue building on these successes.
However, the WHO has pointed out that an additional 1.5 million deaths could be avoided if global vaccination coverage improves. Today, an estimated 18.7 million infants – nearly one in every five children – worldwide are still missing routine immunisations for preventable diseases, such as diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus.
Also, according to WHO, despite challenges imposed by Ebola, including for routine immunisation coverage, the African Region became one step closer to being certified polio-free with the removal of Nigeria from the list of polio-endemic countries. As recently as 2012, the country accounted for more than half of all polio cases worldwide. Now, only two countries – Afghanistan and Pakistan – remain polio-endemic.
New vaccines against dengue, Ebola and malaria have the potential to be game-changers in immunisation in the near future. And, the new polio vaccination regimen, with the withdrawal of type 2 oral polio vaccine in 155 countries this month, represents a critical step towards a polio-free world.
One important driver of the progress that we have seen so far has been the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI). The EPI has been established in all countries. At the global level, EPI brings together partners to work towards ensuring that everyone has the chance to be fully immunised. When EPI was established, just five per cent of the world’s children were receiving basic immunisations. Now this figure stands at more than 80 per cent.
This is quite a remarkable achievement made as a result of the intervention from WHO and other health partners which must be applauded. However, there is still much work to be done as more than 22 million of the world’s children (about one-fifth of infants) are still not being immunised with basic vaccines.
To improve vaccination coverage, WHO is urging countries to reach more children missed by the routine delivery systems, “especially those living in countries, districts or areas where less than 80 per cent of them are receiving vaccines or those living in countries affected by conflicts or emergencies.”
Equally important is that when a child or adult who is unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated visits a health facility for any reason, their vaccination record should be checked by healthcare workers and they should be given all the vaccines they are missing.
That said, Guyana’s immunisation programme has been largely successful and has resulted in the eradication of illnesses such as polio, yellow fever, and measles, among others diseases. We urge all stakeholders to utilise the coming Week which is dedicated to immunisation to spread the message of the need to be vaccinated, especially in Guyana’s remote areas where health officials still seem to be facing some challenges.
