Gavi’s Big Catch-Up Initiative races to vaccinate children missed during pandemic

SWITZERLAND—Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, UNICEF, and WHO have distributed roughly 200 million additional doses of life-saving vaccines to about half of the children in Gavi-supported countries who did not receive vaccinations during the COVID-19 epidemic.

This major attempt is part of the Gavi Board-approved “Big Catch Up” plan, which has a target budget of US$290 million by December 2023.

The “Big Catch Up” project has helped to offset the fall in childhood immunization rates caused by overwhelmed health systems and hindered access to healthcare during the pandemic.

So far, approximately 32 million doses have been supplied to 13 nations, with another 10 million scheduled to be shipped by the end of the month.

Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Guinea, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nepal, Somalia, Syria, and Tanzania have all received these vaccines.

Many of the 35 low-income countries targeted are currently conducting catch-up initiatives, and others plan to do so soon.

In April 2023, partners launched the “Big Catch Up” programme to address the drop in children’s immunization rates observed during the pandemic.

Despite the overall stability of immunization coverage in Gavi-supported countries, there have been notable differences, with gains in 22 countries offset by other reductions.

This stability has been maintained despite an increasing birth cohort and a rise in the number of zero-dose children in Gavi-implementing countries.

However, Gavi has identified various problems, including rising outbreaks in multiple countries due to immunization deficiencies.

Between December 2022 and November 2023, 51 nations saw substantial or disruptive measles epidemics.

Furthermore, population expansion in areas such as Africa necessitates countries reaching more children each year to maintain coverage levels.

Thabani Maphosa, Managing Director of Country Programmes Delivery at Gavi, emphasised lower-income nations’ exceptional efforts to vaccinate their citizens during the COVID-19 epidemic.

He stated that the emergency response stressed their health systems, prioritizing assisting nations in regaining lost ground in routine immunization coverage and developing more resilient and equitable vaccination programmes for the future.

Maphosa emphasized that Gavi and its partners are moving quickly to support this essential public health objective, recognizing that effective immunization systems are the cornerstone for controlling disease outbreaks and saving lives.

The “Big Catch Up” financing is already helping countries discover and immunize unvaccinated children in remote areas.

In April 2024, Syria launched a programme to target an estimated 360,000 children, employing over 15,000 health professionals and vaccinators at over 1,000 sites.

Similarly, Somalia is using assistance to close some of its largest gaps, such as delivering immunizations against measles, polio, diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis.

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