Juba- Mrs. Lavina Mariba, today, renowned the open of the African vaccination week as a proud mother, with all her three youth fully vaccinated and every household member up to date with their photos. “All my youth are fully vaccinated, my husband and I as neatly,” said Mariba “my youth contain no longer fallen sick for the past eight months, and I contain right here’s the work of vaccine, I am proud of it.” Narrated Mariba.
Mrs. Mariba, a 32-365 days-oldschool resident of —a suburb of Juba—has joined the rest of her neighborhood within the first rate celebration of African Vaccination Week 2025 at a end by Kator Predominant Health Care Centre in Juba.
From 24 to 30 April, South Sudan would possibly well contain fun African Vaccination Week (AVW) under the theme “Immunization for All is Humanly That you’re going to be in a web page to imagine”. This 365 days’s commemoration coincides with the fiftieth anniversary of the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), which, over the past five a protracted time, has pushed development in combating vaccine-preventable diseases, saving lives and promoting health.
In South Sudan, the nation’s national immunization programme has gradually launched lifestyles-saving vaccines, expanding protection with lifesaving vaccines. BCG (tuberculosis vaccine), Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV), DTP (diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis), measles (first dose), and Tetanus Toxoid (TT) vaccines were first launched in 1976. This was as soon as adopted by the introduction of the Pentavalent vaccine in 2015 and the Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) in 2016. Therefore, the tetanus-diphtheria booster (Td) and 2d dose of IPV were launched in 2021. Most lately, the malaria vaccine was as soon as added to the routine immunization time table in 2024.
This 365 days, with the toughen of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the nation is introducing extra vaccines, including the Pneumococcal Conjugate vaccine (PCV), the Rotavirus vaccine, and the 2d dose of Measles-Containing Vaccine (MCV2) to its routine immunization programme, conserving youth safe from pneumonia, measles and diarrhea.
South Sudan’s Ministry of Health highlighted the development that has been pushed by the Expanded programme on Immunization and referred to as on the of us of South Sudan to rob an active position by getting vaccinated. “As we see African Vaccination Week, we contain fun development whereas passing a in point of fact foremost message to our communities that particular particular person health is a deepest responsibility. It starts with you. While the Executive, through its health entities, is working to make certain protection from vaccine-preventable diseases by introducing these original vaccines, the responsibility to construct use of them to protect your self and your loved ones is on your hand,” said Dr Anin Ngot Mou, Beneath-Secretary of South Sudan’s Ministry of Health.
Recordsdata from the WHO Regional Predicament of enterprise for Africa reveals that since the celebration of the principle African Vaccination Week in 2011, countries within the web page contain aged the occasion to conduct a extensive differ of activities including advocacy, communications, vaccination campaigns, and utterly different excessive influence health interventions. In consequence, over the past 14 years, bigger than 180 million folks of all age groups were reached with utterly different vaccines; an estimated 120 million were reached with Nutrition A supplementation and 100 million youth with deworming capsules.
The World Health Organization continues to imply for immunization as a cornerstone of world initiatives aiming to rid the enviornment of vaccine preventable diseases and destroy world health desires. “Vaccination is largely the most price-efficient tool to keep lives and the principle line of protection for cover against disease. WHO commends the Executive’s efforts and toughen by companions to be optimistic the successful introduction of original vaccines into South Sudan’s routine immunization programme. ‘Prioritizing pregnant females and youth will seemingly be key to building a safer and healthier population, serving to us to keep lives and create a substantial health system,” said Dr Humphrey Karamagi, WHO Representative for South Sudan.
All around the final five a protracted time, immunization has saved bigger than 154 million lives—a median of over 3 million lives every 365 days. In Africa, immunization has saved over 50 million lives and recordsdata modelling reveals that in 2024, somewhat one under age 10 in Africa had a 50 per cent greater chance of surviving to their next birthday than they would possibly contain had within the absence of vaccination programmes.
“The introduction of these new vaccines marks a major milestone in South Sudan’s efforts to ensure no child dies or becomes sick because of a vaccine-preventable disease. As we commemorate African Vaccination Week and 50 years of immunization progress, we are reminded of the extraordinary power of vaccines to give every child a fighting chance. UNICEF remains committed to working with the Government and partners to ensure every child, no matter where he or she lives, is reached with life-saving immunization services,” said Noala Skinner, UNICEF Representative in South Sudan.
No matter ongoing routine vaccination efforts, the program has faced utterly different challenges in some unspecified time in the future of the reporting 365 days, including outbreaks of measles, yellow fever, cholera, and cVDPV2. Furthermore, the influx of returnees and refugees fleeing the Sudan crisis, coupled with severe flooding and consequent internal displacement, has strained health techniques. These challenges contain, then again, no longer halted the delivery of immunization products and services, which continue, both within and out of doorways health products and services, even in affected areas.
To take care of the plenty of immunization backlog accumulated between 2019 and 2022, in addition to to attain youth who defaulted on routine vaccinations in 2023 and 2024, the Executive of South Sudan has additionally launched the ‘Gigantic Rep-Up’ vaccination initiative. This national effort is aimed toward figuring out and reaching all youth under the age of 5 (0–59 months) who contain both omitted one or more antigens or contain never received any routine immunization doses.
Thru this initiative, South Sudan is intensifying efforts to end immunity gaps and prevent outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases, which reside a power threat due to low routine protection in loads of substances of the nation.
As phase of the advertising campaign, the Ministry of Health—working in end coordination with key companions comparable to WHO and UNICEF—is rolling out gain-up vaccination activities in 30 counties all the arrangement throughout the nation. These efforts namely target 146,054 zero-dose youth these which contain no longer received a single dose of any routine vaccine with the beefy time table of routine Expanded Programme on Immunization vaccines.
It’s miles in this regards that this 365 days the AVW celebrates and recognizes the collective efforts to keep and toughen limitless lives from vaccine-preventable diseases and underscores that immunization for all is an achievable purpose.
In regards to the vaccines launched
Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV): Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV) is a vaccine that protects against infections caused by the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus). PCV is recommended for infants, younger youth, to prevent severe forms of pneumococcal disease bask in pneumonia, meningitis, and bacteremia.
Rotavirus Vaccine (Rota): The rotavirus vaccine (Rota) is a reside, oral vaccine aged to protect against rotavirus infections, the main reason within the support of severe diarrhea in younger youth. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that or no longer it’s included in national immunization schedules, in particular in countries with excessive charges of rotavirus gastroenteritis.
Measles Vaccine (MCV2): WHO recommends all countries to consist of a 2d routine dose of measles containing vaccine (MCV2) of their national routine vaccination schedules no matter the level of protection with the principle routine dose of measles containing vaccine (MCV1)
For more recordsdata, please contact:
Ministry of Health: Mary Denis Obat, Director of Health Education and Promotion, mobat43 [at] gmail.com (mobat43[at]gmail[dot]com) Tel.: +211 924 887 006
World Health Organization (WHO): RUTAREMARA, Alice, Electronic mail: rutaremaraa [at] who.int (rutaremaraa[at]who[dot]int), Tel: +211 921 887 748
UNICEF: Garang Abraham; Conversation Manual; e-mail: gdiit [at] unicef.org (gdiit[at]unicef[dot]org); Tel: +211922583372
