![]() The pandemic diverted services, especially those related to vaccination, she added. You may want to vaccinate the whole country, but you have countries with a huge populations and might not be able to. Third is about when we have so many emergencies as well as the issue of financial capacity. So, it’s difficult to catch them because they’ll be moving, looking for grazing for their cattle. A number of our populations move about in Africa. Second, it is about the nomadic population. When you don’t understand, it’s very difficult for you to find yourself involved in that activity. However, Dr Sheila argued that apart from the issue of nomadic communities, people are not aware, are not educated enough and don’t understand why they’re getting vaccinated. So, it is important to reach those communities with innovative strategies to ensure access to vaccination and other primary healthcare services, she added. “We have a lot of hard-to-reach areas we have conflict areas, we have areas with humanitarian crises, we have fragile settings where it’s difficult for vaccines or vaccination programs to reach,” she said. You must have trained healthcare workers to administer the vaccines you must have strategies to reach children wherever they are, which is also a huge problem.įurthermore, she stressed the issue of accessibility. When you generate demand from the communities, you must ensure these vaccines are available to all children. The parents need to know the essence of the why they are vaccinating their children,” she said.īut there’s also an issue of supply. So, they need to be educated so that they can create a demand. “The communities are not aware of the vaccines, they do not know the importance of the vaccines. An issue around demand and supply is one among them. ![]() So, they become a population at risk of diseases, but beyond being at risk, they also become a population that harbours those diseases and can transmit them to others, she added.Įndie pointed out a couple of sides to the causes of the problem. They have huge population of children that have not been reached with vaccines,” she said.Īlso read: COVID-19 fallout: Immune amnesia may be lurking amid millions of missing measles shots ![]() You look at countries like India, then when you come down to Africa, you look at Nigeria, you look at Ethiopia. “We have countries that contribute to the huge population of zero children in the world. If the children are not protected against those diseases, they will either die as children or be unable to have a good quality of life when they grow up, she said. Įndie emphasised that reaching every child with lifesaving vaccines is important because they protect children from several diseases, including tuberculosis, diarrheal diseases, polio, etc. The experts were interviewed at the fifth edition of the Africa Health Agenda International Conference. To go deeper into the causes and probable solutions of zero-dose children, this reporter had exclusive conversations with Ndadilnasiya Endie Waziri, chair of the Gavi CSO steering committee for immunisation and stronger health systems and Dr Sheila Shawa, senior technical and partnership specialist, Health, Humanitarian Affairs Directorate at the African Union Commission. An estimated 19.7 million children under the age of one year did not receive basic vaccines, according to 2019 WHO figures.Īlso read: Scarred: The COVID-19 pandemic destroyed human capital. Though the pandemic has had a devastating effect on services for health and immunisation worldwide, one in eight children was zero-dose - not received a vaccine of any kind - even before. * Updated субота 18 Березень 2023 p.The COVID-19 pandemic and related disruptions have weakened health systems, with 25 million children not receiving vaccination in 2021, 5.9 million more compared to 2019 figures and the highest number since 2009, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
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