80m children at risk as Covid-19 disrupts immunisation

The lives of more than 80 million children globally aged below one year are at risk of diseases such as diphtheria, measles and polio as Covid-19 disrupts routine vaccination efforts.

The latest warning by the global vaccine agency Gavi, the World Health Organization and Unicef comes ahead of a global vaccine summit in London next Thursday.

During the summit, world leaders will be expected to come together to help maintain immunisation programmes and mitigate the impact of the pandemic in low-income countries.

Similar concerns have been raised by the Health ministry and the Council of Governors after it emerged that women were shunning antenatal clinics for fear of contracting the virus.

CoG health committee chairman Mohammed Kuti said the gains which the country had made in immunisation and reduction in maternal mortality were slowly getting reversed.

The three global agencies have now called for concerted efforts to ensure that routine immunisation and vaccination campaigns against the preventable diseases go on uninterrupted.

The agencies say that more than half of 129 countries have reported moderate to severe disruptions, with some recording total suspension of vaccination services between March and April.

“Immunisation is one of the most powerful and fundamental disease prevention tools in the history of public health. Disruption of immunisation programmes by the Covid-19 pandemic threatens to unwind decades of progress against vaccine-preventable diseases like measles,” WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

“At the June 4 Global Vaccine Summit in London, donors will pledge their support to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to sustain and accelerate this lifesaving work in some of the most vulnerable countries,” he said.

In some cases, mothers have been reluctant to leave their homes due to movement restrictions, lack of information or because they fear to get Covid-19 infection.

In other instances, the unavailability of healthcare workers has been a challenge as most have been redeployed to Covid-19 response duties, coupled with lack of protective equipment.

“More children in more countries are now protected against more vaccine-preventable diseases than at any point in history. Due to Covid-19, this immense progress is now under threat, risking the resurgence of diseases like measles and polio,” Gavi CEO Seth Berkley said.

Despite Kenya putting in place specific guidelines for Covid-19 prevention, not much change has been seen, with hospitals reporting very few visits.

"Not only will maintaining immunisation programmes prevent more outbreaks, but it will also ensure we have the infrastructure we need to roll out an eventual Covid-19 vaccine on a global scale,” Berkley said.

The agencies are also concerned that delays in the transportation of vaccines poses as a major challenge.

Despite Unicef procuring more than 2.43 billion doses of vaccines, there has been substantial delay in planned vaccine deliveries due to the lockdown measures, the ensuing decline in commercial flights and limited availability of charters.

The vaccines were supposed to reach approximately 45 per cent of all children below five years in at least 100 countries.

Kenya's head of vaccines Collins Tabu told the Star that the government had sourced for vaccines before the interruption but feared that the supply might be disrupted by changes in shipment schedules due to lockdowns.

“I don’t foresee that we are likely to run out of stock. Of course there will be a bit of change in the shipping schedules so we are working to make sure that we do not run out of stock of the vaccines,” Tabu said.

“That is when we will have to respond to the changes of policies in some airlines that we use to ship. Maybe then we have to change to another airline. Changing of the cargo flight schedules means that we have to reschedule our shipment of vaccine.”

Gavi recently signed an agreement with Unicef to provide advance funding to cover increased freight costs for the delivery of vaccines in light of the reduced number of commercial flights available. 

Unicef says there has been a 70-80 per cent reduction in planned vaccine shipments due to the dramatic decline in commercial flights and limited availability of charters since March 22.

As a result, dozens of countries are at risk of lack of stocks due to delayed vaccine shipments.

“We cannot let our fight against one disease come at the expense of long-term progress in our fight against other diseases,” Unicef executive director Henrietta Fore said.

“We have effective vaccines against measles, polio and cholera. While circumstances may require us to temporarily pause some immunisation efforts, these immunisations must restart as soon as possible or we risk exchanging one deadly outbreak for another,” Fore said.

Unicef warns that disruptions in routine immunisation, particularly in countries with weak health systems, could lead to disastrous outbreaks in 2020 and well beyond, with the effects spilling over to manufacturers who may be required to postpone future production if their warehouse storage space is exceeded.

The WHO is this week expected to issue new guidelines to countries on maintaining essential services during the pandemic, including recommendations on how to provide immunisations safely.

Edited by Henry Makori