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Drone shot from DRC documentary, 2021: getting yellow fever vaccines across the Congo river
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August EYE Strategy Newsletter
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EYE on yellow fever: two new podcast episodes!
We are delighted to present two new episodes of the EYE on Yellow Fever podcast, with more esteemed guests.
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Episode 2: A History of Yellow Fever
In the days before scientists understood how yellow fever was transmitted - and well before there was a vaccine - people referred to the disease by how it manifested itself. They called it “Vómito Negro” - black vomit. In this episode, Dr Sylvain Aldighieri from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), which is the American Regional Office of the World Health Organization (WHO), helps us to chart the deadly history of yellow fever from 3,000 years ago, through the present day.
Also, Dr Ibrahima Socé Fall, WHO’s Assistant Director-General for Emergency Response talks about the setting up of the EYE Strategy and the plan to eliminate yellow fever epidemics by 2026.
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Episode 3: How COVID-19 changed everything
Since COVID-19 emerged in December 2019, it has drained resources in yellow fever hotspots, and delayed lifesaving vaccination campaigns, increasing the risk of outbreaks. Despite this, 48 million people were still vaccinated against yellow fever for life in 2020.
How does this happen in the midst of a pandemic? And what can that pandemic teach us about combatting yellow fever in the future? We get the perspectives of Dr Mike Ryan, who heads up WHO's response, and Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, and soon to be WHO's Assistant Director-General for Health Emergency Intelligence.
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Listen to both episodes by clicking on the images above or subscribe to the
series on your chosen podcast app here or listen on the web here.
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3rd EYE Annual Partners’ Meeting 2019, Brasília
Peer-to-peer learning & country collaboration survey
We need your help in taking the planning of our peer-to-peer learning and country collaboration programme to the next level. We firmly believe that the success of the EYE Strategy lies in spreading knowledge and learnings across our network to enable all our partners and colleagues to approach their yellow fever activities more efficiently and successfully.
The vision for the programme is to enable knowledge sharing, capability and capacity enhancing across the global network and between countries. In order to do this, we need to hear your views on what you need and envision from such a programme. There will be a roundtable discussion on the results of this survey at the 5th EYE Annual Partners’ Meeting 2021 in October.
Please click here to complete the survey and have your say.
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The Yellow Fever Annual Report for 2020 is now published in the Weekly Epidemiological Record (WER). Amidst the difficulties of continuing to protect at-risk populations during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is testament to all those working on yellow fever activities, that the number of YF vaccinations increased in 2020 in comparison to 2019.
More information below on the impact of COVID-19, as well as the expansion of the disease across the continent of Africa, reinforcing the importance of maintaining high levels of vaccination, and to ensure that EYE’s goal of protecting nearly 1 billion people by 2026 is met.
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To read the full report, click here.
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Sudan
Sudan has now completed yellow fever (YF) routine immunization in all 18 of its states. This is a notable milestone for Sudan and also, for the EYE strategy, as the country makes a great leap in its strategy to control YF transmission.
Nigeria
Last month, we outlined Nigeria’s large-scale YF vaccination campaigns planned for 2021. Approximately 29.1 million doses (MDs) will be used to target those eligible between the ages of 9 months and 44 years old. The campaigns are taking place in seven states: Abia, Imo, Ebonyi (with a tailored approach dependant on the security situation), Taraba, Kano, Gombe and Borno.
Ogun, Abia, Imo, Ebonyi and Borno states are planned as dual antigen campaigns with measles, and Taraba state will be combined with Meningitis A vaccine.
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Infographic provided by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, 2021
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, is an integral partner of the EYE Strategy. We are grateful for their ongoing commitment and investment into helping us achieve our goals of eliminating YF epidemics by protecting almost 1 billion people.
The press release focuses on some of the following achievements of the investment made in YF diagnostics in Africa, where we have 27 countries flagged as high risk for the disease.
Gavi’s investment has helped to:
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boost YF diagnostic capacity across Africa and has ‘revolutionised’ diagnostics on the continent, reducing the risk of future epidemics,
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reduce the time needed to complete testing by 70% between the inception of EYE in 2017 to 2020,
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increase the number of laboratories able to confirm YF samples on the continent by four times, and
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make the first commercial YF PCR testing kit available.
Quotes from our partners include, Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, Dr Mike Ryan, Executive Director, WHO Health Emergencies Programme, Dr Erin Staples, a medical epidemiologist with the Arboviral Diseases Branch of U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Etleva Kadilli, Director of UNICEF Supply Division.
Click here for the full press release.
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Dr Ephrem T. Lemango is the Associate Director and Chief of Immunization in UNICEF in New York.
He oversees the immunization and vaccines related work of UNICEF, spanning across six regions and over 130 countries. He has previously worked as the Regional Immunization and Primary Health Care focal in the World Health Organization (WHO), Regional Office for Africa (AFRO), where
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he led interventions to strengthen immunization systems and provided strategic leadership on the development of the vision for the Regional Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA 2030).
He comes with more than sixteen years of progressive national and international experience on immunization, child health, maternal health, primary healthcare and macro-economic issues. Eleven of these years have been spent in senior leadership roles.
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September
Annual International Coordinating Group on Vaccine Provision (ICG) meeting – September 21st -23rd 2021
EYE Annual Country Support meeting, AFRO – September 28th - 29th 2021 (virtual meeting). For more information on the AFRO EYE country support meeting, please contact
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., with copy to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
October
A regional combined Molecular & Serology training workshop is being organized for French-speaking African countries in Dakar,
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Senegal hosted by Institut Pasteur Dakar (IPD) - October 4th to 9th 2021
A regional combined molecular & serology training workshop training is being organized for English-speaking African countries in Entebbe, Uganda, hosted by the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) - October 12th to 17th 2021
The 7th Annual Laboratory Technical Working Group (LTWG) meeting is scheduled for 20th and 21st October 2021
The 5th EYE Annual Partners’ Meeting will take place on the 25th, 26th and 27th of October from 3.00pm to 5.30pm Central European Time.
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This month’s shout out goes to
Dr Peter Ebongue Mbondji in his EYE mask based in Cameroon. Peter is working with the EYE Secretariat to develop the EYE readiness, preparedness and response guidelines.
If you would like to receive an EYE mask, please email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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Tell us your news!
We would love to showcase the work you are doing on protecting people from yellow fever. To submit your news, stories, photos and videos, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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To read the EYE Strategy, click here
To visit the WHO yellow fever pages, click here
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Copyright © 2021 World Health Organization, All rights reserved.
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