It’s booster time: People with weak immune systems will soon be able to walk in for an extra Covid shot
The system South Africa uses to track Covid-19 vaccines will soon be updated to allow people with weak immune systems to come in for a booster shot. This will in addition to the extra dose they received last year, as the jabs offer less protection in people with certain health conditions like cancer or HIV.
At least eight African countries postponed routine vaccination programmes because of Covid-19 this year.
Governments have been urged to run Covid-19 vaccinations concurrently with other life-saving ones.
WHO is marking African Vaccination Week, themed “Long Life for All”.
African countries are being urged to move toward integrating routine immunisation programmes with Covid-19 ones to cover lost ground.
This is because at least eight African countries this year postponed routine vaccination programmes as the Covid-19 pandemic became the immediate health focus, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says.
As such, “this (shift) left many children vulnerable to highly infectious childhood diseases”.
Covid-19 became a global pandemic on 11 March 2020 and the world had to grapple with uncertainty. At least 7.7 million children across the globe missed critical vaccines, most of them in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“In 2020, 7.7 million infants missed one or more doses of diphtheria, tetanus toxoid, and pertussis (whooping cough) containing vaccines. Also, 4.9 million infants missed their first dose of the measles vaccine,” said WHO’s Africa Region in a statement.
While the focus has been mainly on Covid-19 since vaccines were rolled out in 2021, only 8.7% of the African population is fully vaccinated, a far cry from the global average of 58%.
However, Covid-19 has seen the biggest vaccine rollout in the continent’s history. The shift from other important vaccination initiatives resulted in Malawi, in February this year, recording a case of wild polio which was last detected in the country in 1992.
The wake-up call got Malawi back on track in paying attention to maintaining the eradication of polio.
“I commend the government of Malawi for moving swiftly to contain the outbreak, quickly vaccinating 2.7 million children younger than five against the disease. However, the incident is a timely reminder that routine vaccinations should be a non-negotiable on our continent,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO’s African Office regional director.
Late last year, there was a yellow fever outbreak in Ghana, but officials moved swiftly to vaccinate for yellow fever and Covid-19 at the same time.
From that lesson, Nigeria is currently integrating routine childhood vaccinations with Covid-19 ones at its fixed and mobile vaccination sites, and WHO has asked all countries to follow that example because of its cost-effectiveness.
“We urge all countries to ramp up routine immunization and Covid-19 vaccination efforts concurrently, allocating the necessary resources. Maintaining routine immunization services, despite the shift of resources to fight the Covid-19 pandemic in the past two years, is more cost-effective, and will lead to a longer life for all,” Moeti said.
WHO is marking African Vaccination Week, which ends on Friday. This year’s theme is “Long Life for All” celebrating all the vaccines that protect humans.
