ACCORDING to the World Health Organisation (WHO), global vaccination targets for 2015 are far off-track with one in five children still missing out on routine life-saving immunisations that can avert 1,5 million deaths each year from preventable diseases.
Countries across the globe have already begun preparing for the World Immunisation Week which is set to start from April 24 to 30.
As the health body calls for renewed efforts to get progress back on course, the Ministry of Health and Child Care’s director of Epidemiology and Disease Control, Dr Portia Manangazira has encouraged parents and care givers to ensure that children are on course in terms of immunisation.
She said immunisation was vital for the growth of children.
“During this time we are asking caregivers to go to their local clinics with their immunisation card, especially if they are not sure if their children are immunised or not,” Dr Manangazira said.
“Each vaccine is like a ‘key’ that locks or prevents a particular disease, hence we should look at the body like a house where each door has its own key just like vaccines.
“It is very important to get the right vaccine at the right time.”
According to the WHO, 22 million infants missed out on the required three doses of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis-containing vaccines (DTP3) in 2013, with many of them living in the world’s poorest countries.
Unnecessary disability and death are being caused by failure to vaccinate.
“World Immunisation Week creates a focused global platform to reinvigorate our collective efforts to ensure vaccination for every child, whoever they are and wherever they live,” said Dr Flavia Bustreo, WHO assistant director-general, Family, Women’s and Children’s Health.
“It is critical that the global community now makes a collective and cohesive effort to put progress towards our six targets back on track.”
In 2012, all 194 WHO member states at the World Health Assembly endorsed the Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP), a commitment to ensure that no one misses out on vital immunisation.
However, a recent independent assessment report on GVAP progress rings an alarm bell, warning that vaccines are not being delivered equitably or reliably and that only one of the six key vaccination targets for 2015 is currently on track.
Many countries worldwide have experienced large measles outbreaks in the past year, threatening efforts to achieve the GVAP target of eliminating measles in three WHO regions by the end of 2015.
Although progress has stalled in recent years, this early success demonstrates the potential of vaccines, which are increasingly being extended from children to adolescents and adults, providing protection against diseases such as influenza, meningitis and cervical and liver cancers.
Dr Manangazira said the immunisation week is a time for caregivers and parents to meet with health practitioners and get answers for any problems they might have with regards to their children.
“There will not be any new vaccines this time around outside of the routine ones,” she said.
Next month, WHO will bring together high-level representatives of 34 countries with routine vaccination (three doses of DTP3) coverage of less than 80 percent to discuss the challenges faced by countries and explore solutions to overcome them.
Although many countries are already vaccinating four out of five children with DTP3, one-third of countries are still struggling to reach the ‘fifth child’, meaning millions of children remain at risk of illness, disability or death.
WHO estimates that today immunisations prevent between two and three million deaths annually and protect many more people from illness and disability.