13th April, 2018
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says it will work closely with health partners to vaccinate more than 25 mllion people in Nigeria against yellow fever in 2018.
Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, the WHO Director-General, said this at the African Launch of “Strategy to Eliminate Yellow Fever Epidemic” (EYE Strategy) in Abuja.
Ghebreyesus said it was important to launch a new strategy of eliminating yellow fever in Africa considering that the world was currently facing an increased risk of the disease.
“Yellow fever must be a priority for Africa and of course for the whole world.
“The EYE strategy is a bold and innovative plan to vaccinate nearly one billion people in Africa against yellow fever by 2026.
“Nigeria has shown its commitment to the EYE strategy by vaccinating 14 million people since October last year including 1.2 million people in Borno state.
“With support from WHO and health partners more than 25 million people will be vaccinated against yellow fever in Nigeria this year.
“WHO was founded on the condition that health is a human right; no one should get sick and die just because they are poor.
“All people should have access to the health services they need when and where they need them without suffering financial hardships that includes yellow fever vaccines.”
He said 27 African countries were at high risk of yellow fever epidemics following its re-emergence as a public health threat.
“Yellow fever has re-emerged as a public health threat in Africa and in the America’s.
“In Africa, 27 countries are at high risk of yellow fever epidemics.
“There are up to 170, 000 severe cases of yellow fever and 60, 000 deaths every year.
“Brazil has been responding to a yellow fever outbreak since December 2016 with almost 1,000 confirmed cases.
“There is a growing risk that yellow fever will spread to cities in Asia and other parts of the world; we must not let that happen we must act now.
“A single injection can protect a person for life.’’
He said that due to the yellow fever epidemic in parts of the world and Africa, the global vaccine supply has been exhausted.
The director general said producing the yellow fever vaccine was easy but countries were still faced with the challenge of eliminating the disease because companies producing it did not see it as a profitable business.
He said the vaccine was therefore difficult to access.
Ghebreyesus however, said that the organisation has appealed to Brazil which had the facility to produce the vaccine to support it with more vaccines for distribution to countries that needed it.
He urged Nigeria to integrate the yellow fever vaccination with other immunisation services delivered through the Primary Health Care Centres in order to reach more citizens within the shortest time.
The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, urged WHO to support the country with more vaccines had it had shortage of the product to reach more citizens.
The minister said the Federal Government was projecting to eliminate the disease in the next seven years but if WHO could support it with more vaccines it would eliminate the disease in five years.