Country Perspectives: Cameroon

In 2007, IFFIm funds were directed in part to an emergency reserve stockpile for yellow fever outbreaks. This enabled the purchase of six million doses annually for three years.

This was immediately put to use in Cameroon after one suspected case of yellow fever was confirmed in October 2007. The Minister of Public Health of Cameroon enlisted the help of an international partnership of WHO, UNICEF, GAVI, Médecins sans Frontières, and the Cameroon Red Cross. They quickly launched an emergency vaccination mass campaign against yellow fever in two health districts for two weeks from the end of October through November.

IFFIm provided some 147,000 doses of bundled vaccine and US$ 33,000 for the campaign’s operational costs. The Cameroon Ministry of Health shared the cost of the campaign, providing US$ 32,000.

photo: WHO

 

Country Perspectives: Togo

IFFIm supports the Yellow Fever Initiative through GAVI and a total of US $48.3 million was disbursed for yellow fever by the end of 2007.

During the first two weeks of February 2007, about 1.3 million Togolese children were immunised against yellow fever – a highly infectious viral disease – in 11 districts of Savanes and Kara regions, drawing on a GAVI - supported yellow fever vaccine stockpile.

Stockpiles not only ensure vaccines are available for immediate deployment when an outbreak is identified. They also secure supply for routine immunisation programmes. With just three manufacturers of yellow fever vaccine worldwide, supply is limited and outbreaks used to take all the vaccine available.

The response to the yellow fever outbreak in Togo was a great example of coordination among partners – led by the Ministry of Health – that will reduce the size and frequency of yellow fever outbreaks for at least 20 years.

Staff from the WHO country and regional offices, UNICEF and Agence de Médecine Préventive together provided expertise in epidemiology, logistics and quality assurance, together with a social mobilisation expert from the WHO Mediterranean Centre for Vulnerability Reduction who worked with the Togolese Red Cross’s national volunteer network on social mobilisation, supported by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

photo: WHO/Oliver Asselin
Togolese children queue with their immunisation cards to be vaccinated against yellow fever.

For the full photo story on this, see https://www.who.int/features/2007/yellow_fever/gallery/en/index.html