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.

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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 1 in 30 years. A second case followed in Mozambique three months later. The outbreaks sparked mass polio vaccination campaigns across southern Africa.

Read more: https://theconversation.com/covid-pandemic-created-immunisation-gaps-in-africa-over-half-a-million-children-are-at-risk-190565