Covid-19: World Health Organisation supports ongoing vaccination efforts

As Covid-19 continues to spread around the world, people in all countries are being encouraged to take precautions to prevent transmission, including in many countries by staying at home and physical distancing.

But a pandemic does not erase other diseases and their impact.

While many services, including some health services, are being scaled back, the risk of further outbreaks of infectious diseases grows.

The healthcare disruptions caused by Covid-19 could have a devastating impact on child mortality.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), on 2020, 80-million children under one year of age, live in a country that has reported some kind of disturbance to the immunisation programme largely due to limited access to health centres, low availability of PPE for healthcare workers and fear of contracting Covid-19.

Also read: WHO and UNICEF warn of a decline in vaccinations during Covid-19

The organisation is helping countries as they balance the threat of Covid-19 with the threat of vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks and deaths that could result.

With global and regional guidance, as well as by facilitating the delivery of essential health supplies, WHO is providing knowledge and assistance to immunisation programmes worldwide, throughout a rapidly evolving situation.

Burkina Faso conducted mass vaccinations in July, with a four-day polio immunisation campaign. Across two districts in the country’s Centre-East region, 174 304 were vaccinated against polio, in line with WHO guidelines and maintaining infection prevention and control measures.

Across 39 countries and territories in the Americas, with lockdown restrictions easing, vaccination services that had been suspended in some countries are resuming.

Vaccination services increased from 57 per cent normal functionality to 79 per cent in the same period.

Also read: World Health Organisation calls for equitable access to future Covid-19 vaccines in Africa (Video)

This was facilitated by using innovative approaches like mobile vaccination centres, drive through vaccinations, and vaccinating at schools and directly in homes.

The risk of outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases continues as the pandemic grows in many areas around the world.

In January 2020, as Cambodia confirmed its first Covid-19 case, it also confirmed 84 cases of measles.

341 measles cases were recorded in Cambodia in the first four months of 2020.

As Covid-19 has taken hold, it has been vital that immunisation efforts against measles continue.

As a result, mobile outreach teams have visited communities, giving catch-up vaccinations to children least likely to visit health centres and hospitals.

Also read: African countries among innovation leaders in the fight against Covid-19

In high-risk communities, health workers have gone door to door and boat to boat in order to administer lifesaving vaccines to the most vulnerable.

Due to the ongoing work of the outreach immunisation programme, communities are familiar with health workers and have developed trust in them.

This has led to the same health workers providing Covid-19 guidance directly to communities that may not understand the complexities of the virus and what is needed to stay safe.

After months of resilient work from outreach teams who safely continued immunisation programmes during the pandemic, Cambodia saw fewer cases of measles recorded in May 2020 than in each of the previous months.

Amidst challenges to resuming immunisation services, there is encouraging news from the Maldives and Sri Lanka.

The two countries were verified as having eliminated rubella, a vaccine-preventable disease, in early July.

Also read: Watch: World Health Organisation concerned about impact of Covid-19 on health services

They are now the first two countries in the WHO South-East Asia region to eliminate both rubella and measles before the 2023 target.

Countries across the South-East Asia region are making concerted efforts to resume disrupted immunisation programmes with precautionary measures in place.

The world is in the midst of a pandemic. In continuing to administer vaccines whenever safely possible, countries are taking innovative steps to prevent a further burden on families and health systems that could be caused by outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases.

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