Presented at: The Technical Advisory Group (TAG) Meeting on Communication for Polio Eradication in Zimbabwe

This PowerPoint presentation was part of a November 2006 meeting hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO) African Regional Office (AFRO) in Zimbabwe. At this meeting, country-specific presentations were made by communication practitioners in 5 countries which have experienced ongoing cases of wild polio virus (WPV) from 2005 to 2006. The objectives of the meeting included the following:

1. To critically review country communication strategies and activities for polio eradication, routine immunisation and integrated expanded programme of immunisation (EPI)-polio action including progress in implementing the Yaounde 2005 TAG country recommendations.
2. To develop the technical recommendations for each country which, when implemented, would improve polio and routine communication performance.
3. To develop and propose communication indicators that can be effective in measuring the impact of communication strategies for improved polio eradication and expanded routine immunisation.

This presentation gives an overview of the WHO/AFRO routine immunisation (RI) priorities for 2006. It also reviews main achievements with regards to third dose diptheria, pertussis and tetanus vaccine (DPT3) coverage in the African region between 2005-2006, as well as upcoming challenges to immunisation performance.

The main priorities for 2006 as outlined in this presentation include:

• Focusing on the “Big Four” (Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, and Nigeria) and other priority countries
• Assisting countries with making informed decisions on opportunities provided by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI)
• Providing support to countries to improve the quality of data, as well as develop/update their comprehensive multi-year planning (cMYP)

District performance for DPT3 coverage in 2006 was listed by the presenters for four African regions (Western, Southern, Eastern and Central). The Southern region displayed the highest proportion, having achieved >80% DPT3 coverage in 68% of its districts, while the Central region remains low at 37% of districts. With the exception of the Central region, all regions have achieved at least 50% DPT3 coverage in 90% or more of their districts.

A series of slides in this presentation illustrated the 2005-2006 performance statistics for DPT3 coverage for the Big Four countries, as well as a number of countries in each of the target regions listed above.

Globally, the future challenge for DPT3 coverage consists of 28.2 million unreached infants. WHO/AFRO has identified 8.71 million infants in sub-Saharan Africa that are an important part of this demographic, and represent an area for future focus.

Click here to download the full PowerPoint presentation as a PDF file.