The Ministers for Health in Africa, Political leader and Technical expert have pledged to ensure improved access to vaccine in the continent to reduce mortality, morbidity and disability.
This decision was taken at the maiden ministerial conference on immunization in Africa,in Adis Ababa in Ethiopia from the 22nd to 25th of February 2016.
According to the ministers, the access to vaccination has improved since the year 2000 with drastic fall in incidence of measles by about 80 percent but one in every five African child is still unimmunized against the preventable childhood killer diseases, a situation that is completely unacceptable.
The Ministers of Health and others at the conference declared ‘Universal Access to Immunization as a Cornerstone for Health and Development” in the continent. This declaration commits countries to increase domestic financial investments in order to deliver routine immunization vaccines.
The Ministers also called upon Governments and partners to bargain with vaccine manufacturers to provide access to vaccines by tier-pricing based on Gross National Income to ensure that vaccines will be available and affordable to all African countries.
The conference was sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the African Union Commission.
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