As part of the African vaccination week (after -sales service), the Extended Vaccination Program (PEV) in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) has exchanged with media professionals on the role they must play on the one hand, in the awareness of the population to be vaccinated, on the other hand to fight against disinformation served by social media against vaccines.
Nadine Kaswa, one of the experts within the PEV, drew up an alarming inventory of vaccination coverage in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The PEV indicates that in 2024, 193,054 children under the age of one received no vaccine, including the province of North Kivu and Kinshasa are at the top of the list.
She added that on the global scale, the DRC is one of the five countries that alone have two thirds of zero dose children.
For his part, Akarasis Maxas Head of section Monitoring and evaluation Communication PEV presented the results of the actions carried out as part of the vaccination coverage. In 2024, 28,479,426 children from 0 to 59 months old were vaccinated against polio; 3,171,038 children of 6 to 59 months were vaccinated against measles; 12. 438. 055 people from 9 months to 60 years old were vaccinated against yellow fever.
To this is added, the introduction of vaccines, namely: measles-rubole (RR); Human papillomavirus (HPV); Typhoid (TCV); Hepatitis B at birth (HEPB); Meningitis (multivalent); Tuberculosis; and hexavalent.
The PEV has made recommendations to the media, in particular to inform the population about the availability of vaccines, while raising awareness and verifying information, with a view to improving the vaccination and health coverage of African populations.
Recommendations have also been sent to the country’s authorities and partners, in particular, improve the state of roads to facilitate the delivery of vaccines; Strengthen security in the provinces in conflicts and availability The means (152,871,094 $) to cover vaccination activities in the DRC, in accordance with the Mashako 3.0 plan.
Selected as theme: “vaccination for all is humanly possible”, the celebration of the African vaccination week (after -sales service) is an opportunity to advocate and awareness in order to strengthen the systems and vaccination services for better vaccination coverage.
Grace Guka
