UNITED NATIONS - / MaximsNewsNetwork / 09 September 2008 -- Abidjan/Brazzaville - The city of Abidjan in the Cote d'Ivoire is again considered safe following a Yellow Fever epidemic because the national Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, nongovernmental organizations and others in the Yellow Fever Partnership joined forces to vaccinate over 2.2 million people in the Ivorian capital in a 14-day campaign financed by the GAVI Alliance that finished on Friday, 05 September.

More than 2.2 million non-vaccinated people out of a total population of approximately 5 million in the capital received their Yellow Fever (YF) vaccination in an effort that raised coverage levels in the city sufficiently high so that the entire population is now expected to be protected against the epidemic.

Experts estimate that at least 60-80 percent of a given population has to be vaccinated for epidemics to be ended for the whole population. 

An earlier Yellow Fever vaccination campaign in Abidjan in 2001 had achieved a coverage rate above 90% but the coverage rates slipped down to about 60% in the intervening years because of population movements and births.

"This was a team effort from start to finish. The GAVI Alliance financed the vaccine and equipment, the International Coordinating Group for Yellow Fever provided the vaccine, the Ministry of Health provided the manpower, logistics and participated economically to cover 50% of the operational costs and above all the will to stop this urban outbreak in its tracks, and local and international organizations contributed their time and expertise to ensure that all steps in the process were completed successfully. As a result we have now protected a major urban centre - and perhaps larger areas - against the possibility of an epidemic," stated Dr. Yada Adamou, of the World Health Organization African Regional Focal Point for Epidemic and Pandemic Alert and Response.

The GAVI Alliance supported the Yellow Fever Initiative with $58 million for mass vaccination programmes across West Africa in order to greatly reduce the population at risk from Yellow Fever. 

The countries of Mali, Senegal and Togo have also carried out national preventive vaccination campaigns as part of the Initiative and more countries will follow when sufficient vaccines become available.

“Vaccination is instrumental in preventing cases and epidemics of this killer disease” stated Dr. Nina Schwalbe, the GAVI Alliance Deputy Executive Secretary. “With the Yellow Fever Initiative, affected countries like Côte d’Ivoire have an exceptional opportunity, and responsibility, to protect their populations. GAVI is committed to working with all our partners, both globally and in the field, to bring life-saving vaccines to the populations at risk.”

Yellow Fever is an acute, haemorrhagic, viral disease that is transmitted to humans by mosquitoes. The resulting infection can result in no illness or illnesses ranging from mild to severe with 20-50% of those with severe illness dying of the disease. 

Yellow Fever can be prevented by the YF vaccine which provides immunity for at least 10 years but there is currently no known specific antiviral therapy.

Yellow Fever is so sever that just a single case is a critical public health concern. The illness is endemic in the tropical regions of Africa and South America and about 47 countries in those regions are thought to be at-risk -- 33 in Africa and 14 in South America.

The twelve countries involved in the Yellow Fever Initiative include the following: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.

Financial and technical support to the ministries of Health of these countries is given through a Yellow Fever partnership that was launched in February 2006 and includes WHO, UNICEF, GAVI, Médecins Sans Frontier's, IFRC, Association pour la Médecine Préventive (AMP), Programme for Appropriate Technology (PATH), E.U. Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO), U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) and Institut Pasteur. 

The GAVI Alliance is a public-private partnership of major stakeholders in vaccines and immunisation. It includes developing country and donor governments, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank, the vaccine industry in both industrialised and developing countries, research and technical agencies, NGOs, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other private philanthropists. WHO projections show that GAVI support has prevented more than 2.9 million future deaths by the end of 2007.

GAVI's efforts are critical to achieving the Millennium Development Goal on child health, which calls for reducing childhood mortality by two thirds by 2015. Of the 10 million children who die before reaching their fifth birthday every year, 2.5 million die from diseases that could be prevented with currently available or new vaccines. For more information, see: www.gavialliance.org. 

For more information, contact Samuel Ajibola; E-mail ajibolas@afo.who.int tel: + 47 241 39387.  For more WHO news, Fact Sheets and Features and other information see: http://www.who.int/.

Labels: GAVI Alliance, WHO, World Health Organization, UNICEF, Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, Yellow Fever Initiative, Yada Adamou, Nina Schwalbe, Médecins Sans Frontier's, IFRC, Association pour la Médecine Préventive (AMP), Programme for Appropriate Technology (PATH), European Union Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO), United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN), Institut Pasteur, United Nations, U.N., MaximsNewsNetwork,

 

Advertisement

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MaximsNewsNetwork   NEWS NETWORK FOR THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

MaximsNewsNetwork is a Global News Network that is read worldwide, in 201 countries and territories. MaximsNewsNetwork is associated with MediaChannel.org and Globalvision News Network, global news and media information services with more than 350 news affiliates in 135 countries. 

Established in 1999, MaximsNewsNetwork now publishes in the six UN working languages: English, French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish.  

SEE:  About MaximsNewsNetwork

The views expressed are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of MaximsNewsNetwork.

REACH THE WORLD'S MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE  

SEE: Advertise with MaximsNewsNetwork | MaximsNews MEDIA PARTNERSHIPS with MaximsNewsNetwork      

MaximsNewsNetwork | CONTACT MaximsNewsNetwork  | Please contact us about Republishing: ©Copyrights 1999 - 2008, MaximsNewsNetwork. All rights reserved.