The Importance of Vaccines

It is estimated that about three million children under five years of age die each year in the African region and a significant number of these deaths could be prevented by vaccines. Yet one in five children does not receive them. Lack of service delivery in remote areas or lack of information about the effectiveness of vaccines is a major reason many do not receive them.

Vaccine-preventable diseases include but are not limited to measles, polio, whooping cough, tetanus, diphtheria, meningitis, yellow fever, hepatitis B, tuberculosis, pneumonia, diarrhoea and cervical cancers. 

Among these diseases, measles remains one of the leading causes of death among young children globally, despite the availability of a safe and effective vaccine. Measles is estimated to have caused 145 700 deaths globally in 2013, of which it is estimated that 38 000 were in the countries within the WHO African Region. It is a highly contagious, serious disease caused by a virus. In 1980, before widespread vaccination, measles caused an estimated 2.6 million deaths each year. Measles-related deaths are caused by complications associated with the disease. Complications include severe diarrhoea and related dehydration, severe respiratory infections such as pneumonia, blindness, encephalitis (an infection that causes brain swelling). Measles can also trigger severe malnutrition or disseminated tuberculosis infections. Severe measles is more likely among poorly nourished young children, especially those with insufficient vitamin A, or whose immune systems have been weakened by HIV and AIDS or other diseases. In populations with high levels of malnutrition and a lack of adequate health care, up to 10 percent of measles cases result in death. Measles outbreaks can be particularly deadly in countries experiencing or recovering from natural disasters, conflicts or weaknesses in health systems. In countries where measles has been largely eliminated, cases imported from other countries remain an important source of infection. The highly contagious virus is spread by coughing and sneezing, close personal contact or direct contact with infected nasal or throat secretions.

In 2013, the WHO/UNICEF coverage estimates indicate that 74 percent of children in the region have received one dose of measles vaccine by their first birthday, up from 53 percent in 2000. Since 2001, more than 750 million children have been vaccinated in the African Region against measles through supplemental mass vaccination campaigns.

Measles Outbreak In Guinea - Socio-Political Instability

Health authorities in Guinea are scrambling to contain a measles outbreak that has killed one child, infected 37 others and spread to half of the country’s 33 districts.

More than 400 suspected cases, nearly all of them in children under 10 years old, have been registered. A vaccination campaign targeting over 1.6 million children is to be launched in the coming weeks.

“We have moved from three affected districts in Conakry before the end of last year to the whole city now being affected. Five more districts out of Conakry are also affected. It means that it could spread throughout the country,” said Felix Ackebo, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) deputy representative for Guinea.

“One of the causes is the nature of the disease. The other is the social/political instability. Many bilateral donors stopped support, awaiting the holding of legislative elections. The whole health system has been weakened. The government was restricted on what it could purchase, and this affected [availability of] vaccines and other important drugs. Many of the basic social services have suffered from this pause in investment,” Ackebo told IRIN. “In the past, we have been obliged to buy measles vaccines and others because the government could not.”

Only 37 percent of Guinean children are fully vaccinated, according to the 2012 Demographic Health Survey. The country’s last measles epidemic, in 2009, infected 4,755 people and killed 10.

Keita Sakoba, head of disease prevention at the Ministry of Health, said that the current stock of measles vaccine, meant for routine immunization, was insufficient for the vaccination drive. He explained that the outbreak was likely due to the accumulation of unvaccinated children.

“We will launch a vaccination campaign in the 15 affected districts and carry out targeted immunizations in districts neighbouring the affected ones,” Sakoba said.


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