By Gom Mirian
The World Health Organization (WHO) says an estimated 33 million children will need to be vaccinated in Africa between 2023 and 2025 to bring the continent back on track to achieve the 2030 global immunization goals.
The WHO Country Representative Nigeria, Dr. Walter Kazadi Mulombo, disclosed this on Tuesday at a conference to mark the 2023 African Vaccination week celebration in Abuja.
Mulombo who lamented the decline in immunization coverage in the continent driven by the covid-19, said in Nigeria, WHO estimates that in 2019 to 2021 that 6.2million children are zero dose and under immunized children.
According to him, reaching these children would require renewed and intensified efforts by government and partners.
He said to galvanize the commitments required, WHO conducted a high-level event during the African Union Summit in February 2023, where African heads of state endorsed a declaration aimed at revamping and scaling up routine immunization across the continent and implementing urgent measures to address persistent bottlenecks in vaccine and health care delivery systems.
According to Mulombo, “To realize this declaration, this year African Vaccination Week and World Immunization Week, from 24–30 April, with the theme “The Big Catch-Up” has been announced.
“This is a global push by WHO and partners to intensify efforts to reach children who missed vaccinations, as well as to restore and strengthen routine immunization programmes.
“The Big Catch Up” is actually a year-long campaign aiming to reverse the serious setbacks in routine immunization.”
