COVID pandemic created immunisation gaps in Africa . Over half a million children are at risk
Author : Edina Amponsah-Dacosta , Postdoctoral Research Fellow , Vaccines for Africa Initiative , University of Cape Town .
This article was published in The Conversation on September 2022 : https :// theconversation . com / covid-pandemic-created-immunisation-gaps-in-africa-over-half-a-million-children-are-at-risk-190565
Global Health Asia-Pacific is republishing it under Creative Commons licence .
The COVID pandemic exposed the fault lines in health systems and national routine immunisation programmes around the world . A recent World Health Organization ( WHO ) report showed that the pandemic fuelled the largest sustained decline in childhood vaccine coverage rates .
These declines threaten to undo the exceptional efforts made in preventing and controlling the devastating burden of vaccine preventable diseases globally . Routine immunisation has prevented two to three million deaths yearly . Of the lives saved , 800,000 were in the Africa region . Routine immunisation has led to a drastic reduction in diseases like neonatal tetanus and measles . And bacterial meningitis ( type A ) and polio have virtually been eliminated across the continent . The repercussions of the pandemic on routine immunisation programmes in the African region are yet to be fully realised . What we do know so far is that the pandemic has resulted in substantial disruptions
to national routine immunisation programmes . As a result , the continent is seeing an increased number of outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases .
African countries had nearly eliminated the deadly form of meningitis type A . But a four-month-long meningitis outbreak was reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2021 . It accounted for 2,665 cases , claiming 205 lives . This resurgence has been linked with the suspension of meningitis vaccination campaigns at the height of the COVID pandemic . In February 2022 , Malawi reported its first wild case of poliovirus type � in 30 years . A second case followed in Mozambique three months later . The outbreaks sparked mass polio vaccination campaigns across southern Africa .
UNICEF and the WHO have warned of the heightened risk for measles outbreaks , given widening immunisation gaps .
Currently , Zimbabwe is contending with a devastating measles outbreak . Within five months , there have been
36 SEPTEMBER 2022 GlobalHealthAsiaPacific . com