Strategic power of vaccines

DOREEN NAWA, Lusaka
IN the current global environment of austerity and ever decreasing budgets, immunisations represent one of the pillars of global health that is a cost effective, proven intervention.
Beyond protecting millions of children every year from infectious diseases, vaccines often provide the backbone of the healthcare system.
It is for this reason that April 24 to 30, 2015 will be celebrated as the African Vaccination Week to promote the use of vaccines to protect people of all ages against disease.
This year, African Vaccination Week is under the theme ‘Vaccination a gift for life’ and 47 African countries are expected to participate.
African Vaccination Week provides an opportunity for countries to strengthen immunisation services and systems through advocacy, education and communication tools and activities.
When a mother brings her child in for routine immunisations, it can be an entry point to provide her with other health services - HIV counselling and testing, family planning information and services, and bed nets to protect her children from malaria.
Routine immunisations can help the mother and the rest of the family to access healthcare.
Unfortunately, not every mother and child is able to take advantage of these basic services.
According to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisations (GAVI), about 1.7 million children die from vaccine-preventable diseases every year globally.
In Zambia, where distances are vast, basic road infrastructure is lacking, and transportation is weak, reaching every child with immunisations can be very challenging.
For Janet Tembo of Libuko village in Chongwe district, she walks for hours under very hot temperatures, often carrying a child on her back with older children in tow, just to reach a healthcare facility for immunisations.
Not every mother is able to travel these distances, or to make multiple journeys when more than one dose of the vaccine is required.
“The African Vaccination Week is a strategic initiative that every mother should take advantage of because it will be like healthcare brought closer. I would like my fellow mothers to turn out in numbers and bring their children under that age of five,” Ms Tembo said.
Countless challenges also exist in delivering the vaccines. Among them, healthcare facilities often do not have sufficient numbers of trained staff to provide basic services, and maintaining the cold chain so the vaccines are kept at the proper temperature is complex.
Despite these obstacles, there is a strong commitment to immunisation programmes in Zambia.
Recognising that not every mother can access these services, healthcare workers often travel for hours to reach children in remote parts of the country.
In fact, it is this dedication on the part of both health workers and mothers, which has helped fuel high rates of immunisation coverage for measles and polio in the districts.
Ministry of Community Development, Mother and Child Health specialist Francis Mwansa says: “Immunisation is the process whereby a child or a person is made immune or resistant to an infectious disease, typically by the administration of a vaccine. Vaccines stimulate the body’s own immune system to protect the person against subsequent infection or disease.”
Dr Mwansa says immunisation is a proven tool for controlling and eliminating life-threatening infectious diseases and is estimated to avert between two to three million deaths each year globally.
It is one of the most cost-effective health investments, with proven strategies that make it accessible to even the most hard-to-reach and vulnerable populations. It has clearly defined target groups; it can be delivered effectively through outreach activities; and vaccination does not require any major lifestyle change.
And Ministry of Community Development, Mother and Child Health chief expanded programme on immunisation officer Elicah Kamiji says the African Vaccination Week is a time when countries in the African region embark on raising public awareness on the benefits of vaccination and conduct different catch-up vaccination activities.
Ms Kamiji says the event is both timely and apt highlighting the role and importance of governments, healthcare workers, parents, families and communities - all doing their part to support immunisation.
“Everybody has a role to play in fighting vaccine-preventable diseases such as polio, whooping cough, measles, tetanus, diphtheria, influenza, diarrhoea, pneumonia and hepatitis,” Ms Kamiji says.
Introduced only three years ago, the African Vaccination Week (AVW) initiative is now known for promoting the benefits of immunisation during a person’s life, and the delivery of life-saving interventions in the African region.
Indeed hundreds of millions of children, adolescents, women, and men were vaccinated and received other health interventions during the last three sessions.
Zambia has made great strides in the control of some of the vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, epidemic meningococcal type A meningitis, polio, and others.
Currently, Zambia has been declared yellow fever and polio free all because of its commitment to vaccines.
Ongoing efforts by Government in the introduction of new vaccines are injecting momentum to vaccination efforts. This progress is a shining example of what can be done when all stakeholders join hands to improve the health of the people. However, progress can only be sustained if vaccines are provided as part of a comprehensive approach to health services delivery.
By commemorating the African Vaccination Week, Zambia and Africa as a whole are demonstrating an acute awareness of their collective vulnerability to diseases - a vulnerability, which calls for shared responsibility and investment of even more resources in immunisation. PUBLISHED IN THE ZAMBIA DAILY MAIL ON APRIL 26, 2015