Somalia on Monday marked World Immunization Week 2023 with two UN agencies under the theme of “The Big Catch-Up” with a resolve to strengthen primary healthcare and routine immunization across the country and ensure that no one is left behind.
According to estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), routine immunization coverage in Somalia is low compared to other countries, and it is further impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Ministry of Health in collaboration with the WHO and UNICEF said it has made progress during 2022 to bridge these yawning gaps in immunization by scaling up its efforts to strengthen routine immunization across the country.
WHO Representative to Somalia Mamunur Rahman Malik, while referring to the setbacks caused by the global pandemic to routine immunization in Somalia, said that thousands of under-five children have missed routine immunization during the past three years.
“The pandemic has disrupted the essential immunization services in the country. We may anticipate a backslide of over 20 percent in routine immunization coverage unless we are able to rapidly catch up on lost progress,” Malik said in a joint statement issued in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia.
He said the UN health agency in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and UNICEF, is planning for a “Big Catch-Up” by developing an immunization recovery plan to catch up on all those children who have missed out on their routine immunization in the past three years. “This is our chance to restore the immunization coverage to pre-pandemic level and by working together with our partners, we can do it,” Malik said.
In 2022, the Health Ministry in collaboration with the two UN agencies jointly implemented four rounds of accelerated immunization activities, five polio campaigns, eight campaigns for COVID-19, and nationwide integrated measles, tOPV, vitamin A and deworming campaigns.
The WHO also deployed more than 2,100 community health workers while the UNICEF has deployed over 6,000 social mobilizers across the country to disseminate health messages to over 4.5 million people, as well as track and help immunize children who missed out on immunization.
UNICEF Deputy Representative Nejmudin Kedir Bilal said the UN agency supports health systems for increasing routine immunization and integrated health and nutrition services for the children in Somalia, especially where coverage is low in hard-to-reach areas.
The joint efforts made by Somalia and the UN during the last integrated campaign helped vaccinate more than 3.2 million under-five children against measles and 3.5 million against polio, according to the WHO.
Somalia’s Minister for Health Ali Haji lauded the UN agencies for coordinating and collaborating with multiple partners and helping his government to catch up on lost progress in essential immunization, as a result of the global pandemic.
He hoped that the UN would continue to support the ministry to build a strong immunization delivery system and sustain the progress made over the past few years in preventing a backslide of childhood immunization in the country.
