EYE Newsletter April 2020

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96 EYE Newsletter April 2020

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Date: 30 April 2020
 
Increased yellow fever epidemic risk in the short and long run due to COVID-19 impact
The impact of COVID-19 on yellow fever (YF) immunization activities increases epidemic risk in the short run, with delayed outbreak responses, and in the long run, with postponed campaigns and sub-optimal routine immunization performance. YF surveillance is also highly impacted, as reflected in the marked reduction of YF samples received by national laboratories (67% reduction compared to same period last year). While we work to understand and quantify this impact better, efforts are ongoing in parallel to ensure resumption of large-scale YF prevention and catch-up activities as soon as safe and feasible to do so.

YF preventive mass vaccination campaigns (PMVCs) to protect 23 million persons in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana and Nigeria are being delayed because of COVID-19. Mounting YF outbreak response campaigns remains possible after performing a risk-benefit analysis.

The impact of COVID-19 on RI programmes is not fully known. To improve understanding, WHO, UNICEF, Gavi & Sabin’s Boost developed and disseminated an immunization pulse survey to partners at national and sub-national levels. Initial indications are that while some RI services continue in a few contexts, there have been considerable disruptions and decrease in coverage in most contexts. Further work will help better understand the impact and inform strategies to address this impact.

Modeling work to estimate the impact of COVID-19 disruption on vaccination activities is also underway, coordinated by WHO, Gavi, UNICEF, BMGF and Vaccine Impact Modelling Consortium (VIMC).
 
Adjusting YF activities to the COVID-19 context
EYE partners are taking important steps to adjust to the COVID-19 context and maintain support to YF high risk countries.

In addition to enabling countries that qualify for support quickly reallocate up to 10% of grants extended to them under their health system and immunization strengthening programme to respond to the threat posed by COVID-19, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, has also granted a 2-week extension to its May submission deadline for country requests.

WHO is developing guidance on outbreak response vaccination campaigns in the COVID-19 context, which will complement the previously published guiding principles and FAQs for immunization activities developed by WHO and UNICEF for national and sub-national health authorities. This document will offer guidance on assessing the risks and benefits of conducting outbreak response vaccination campaigns  and provide operational guidance to respond to vaccine-preventable and high impact disease (VPD/HID) outbreaks in the COVID-19 context.
 
Adjustments made by partners are also visible on the country support front, whereby concerted efforts are in place to support YF campaign funding, planning and integration of COVID related prevention measures such as triage, Infection prevention and control (IPC), personal protective equipment (PPE), waste management and associated human resource needs.
 
EYE programme risk management in the COVID-19 Context
Efforts have been made to identify and summarize ongoing risks and programmatic impact to the Strategy, as well as to define mitigating actions to reduce or manage COVID-19 impact. The risks identified were delineated into programmatic, resources, epidemic and partnership categories.

Programmatic: Risks identified include the postponement of planned YF vaccination activities, interruption of logistics & supply chains, essential health services and surveillance.

Resources: Risks identified include challenges in recruiting and deploying technical expertise, potential reallocation of YF diagnostics for COVID-19 purposes and delays to YF laboratory work.

Epidemic: Risks identified include delays to acute YF event responses, reducing timely YF signal detection.

Partnership: Risks identified include delays to EYE implementation due to shifting priorities in current context and complexity of virtual working environments.

These risks were endorsed by the EYE Programme Management Group (PMG) and will be reviewed and updated on a monthly basis throughout the pandemic. Risk mitigating actions were defined and are being implemented progressively.
 
WHO celebrated the 2020 World Immunization Week from 24 – 30 April. This year’s theme was #VaccinesWork for All and the campaign focused on how vaccines – and the people who develop, deliver and receive them – are heroes by working to protect the health of everyone, everywhere. Read more here.
 
The EYE Strategy has been actively supporting countries to introduce YF vaccination and improve existing programmes to ensure all at-risk populations receive this highly effective vaccination to provide lifelong protection.
 

110 million people

Protected against yellow fever in Africa since EYE inception.
 
We are all partners. We all have a role to play.
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