Dr Thomas Cherian and Dr William Owen

By Noimot Olayiwola/Staff Reporter

While Qatar boasts of childhood immunisation coverage rates of over 90% for polio, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus and measles, many low-income countries in the Middle East cannot afford new vaccines for their child population - thereby creating new vaccine coverage inequities, it was observed yesterday.

The observations were made by speakers during the opening of the fifth Excellence in Paediatrics (EiP) conference being hosted by Sidra Medical and Research Centre at Qatar National Convention Centre.

Delivering a keynote lecture on the global vaccine action plan for the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI), Dr Thomas Cherian, World Health Organisation’s Immunisation, Vaccines and Biologicals Department Programme and Impact Monitoring co-ordinator, spoke about the vaccination efforts so far as well as achievements in eradicating polio and controlling the meningitis epidemic worldwide.

“In 1988, there were a total of 350,000 polio cases endemic in some 125 countries worldwide,” he recalled. “In 2012, these figures dropped drastically as some 222 polio cases were endemic in only three countries. But recently, we are seeing an increase in polio cases in Somalia, Syria and Pakistan.”

Speaking about polio vaccines, Dr Cherian said it is expected that all countries in the world will introduce a single dose of inactivated polio vaccine by 2015. “There is a need to switch from trivalent to bivalent OPV (oral polio vaccine) now because it has been realised that most current polio vaccines contains the type 2 virus, which is no longer predominant. So, it is expected that by 2015, all countries will start using the new vaccines containing the type 1 virus,” he explained.

Dr Cherian said due to vaccines, there has been an up to 86% reduction in the number of polio deaths worldwide, while a drop of around 70% was seen between 2000 and 2011.

“This global reduction has encouraged many countries to establish elimination target goals by 2015 and 2020. Meanwhile, the reduction of incidence (per million population) target set for 2000-2015 seems unachievable with the current trend,” he said, adding that a drastic increase of 25,000 polio cases have been reported in China so far this year.

“China had less than 10,000 polio cases last year and we hope that the country will get back on track soon,” he noted.

Dr Cherian said despite the improved coverage and reduction in polio incidence, there are still pockets of new regional inequalities in coverage in the Middle East and in some African and Southeast Asian countries.

Meanwhile, he acknowledged that the use of vaccines in the control of the meningitis epidemic has been “quite dramatic” in the past two-three years.

“Since the MenAfriVac rollout (2010-2014), there has been no reported case in countries with high vaccine coverage,” he said, noting that wide coverage in the use of vaccines such as pentavalent, pneumoccocal and rotavirus is also having a huge impact.

He highlighted some of the new challenges facing the vaccination exercise, such as the need for more storage space, transportation and packaging of vaccines.

Dr Cherian predicted that a total of 26mn deaths could be averted in the next decade through vaccination, but only if national governments act now and advocate for generating political commitment and promoting country ownership of national immunisation programmes, ensuring better governance, adequate investments and a strong emphasis on evidence for priorisation and planning at the national level; strengthening immunisation systems and promoting greater integration with broader health systems; increasing access to an affordable supply of quality vaccines to all populations; improving the availability and quality of data and information to monitor performance; and empowering paediatricians to create awareness, allay fears and use every contact with children and families to check and immunise when it is indicated.

“While immunisation already prevents millions of deaths and uncounted illnesses, we must continue working together in supporting countries to deliver life-saving vaccines to people in every community and in every country. Together, we can make the Global Vaccine Action Plan vision - a world in which all individuals and communities enjoy lives free from vaccine-preventable diseases - a reality,” he concluded.

Inaugurating the conference, Sidra’s chief executive officer Dr William Owen claimed that the over 90% immunisation coverage for the said diseases in Qatar have been so for the past 15 years, adding that vaccinations are the most cost-effective and efficient measures for the prevention of infectious diseases.

“The common thread for us all is to achieve greatness by nurturing the potential of the individual. And building potential begins with creating and maintaining health among our children and for our children yet to be born, something that our keynote speaker has dedicated his career to - eliminating the threat of disease through prevention in the form of vaccination,” he said.

More than 1,500 paediatric professionals from over 90 countries are attending the conference to share expertise and learn latest techniques such as Transcatheter Closure of Septal Defects in Children by Sidra’s new Paediatrics Clinical chief Dr Ziyad Hijazi.

The EiP conference concludes tomorrow (December 7).

 

 

 

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