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September EYE Strategy Newsletter
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The 5th EYE Annual Partners’ Meeting is on the 25th, 26th and 27th of October, between 15:00 and 17:30 Central European Summer Time (CEST). This year's meeting will be virtual again, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. If you would like to register, please use this link: https://who.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Z-j08PODT_-2BtM4s5Tq6A
The full agenda will be uploaded to the app. In order to participate in the meeting, you will need to download the event app, which can be done here for Google and here for Apple. Or you can use the web-based version, which is accessible here.
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EYE on Yellow Fever podcast
Episodes 4 and 5 are now available, in which we discuss the impact of climate change and urbanization on diseases such as yellow fever (YF). Both were hosted by the US Center for Disease Control (US CDC).
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Episode 4: Public Health in the Climate Crisis
The warming of our planet is, for many reasons, among the most significant issues of our age. But we perhaps don’t give enough thought to climate change as specifically a health crisis. For example, what will happen when new areas of the world are hot and humid enough to support pathogen-carrying mosquitoes? This episode hears from Professor Rachel Lowe of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Professor Jonathan Patz, Director of the Global Health Institute at Madison’s University of Wisconsin, and WHO vector control specialist Dr Florence Fouque.
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Episode 5:
Cities at risk
We know from COVID-19 that proximity between people is a major factor in the spread of outbreak disease - and yellow fever is no exception. As increasing numbers of people in Africa and South America move to cities, the risk of mass-outbreaks of yellow fever increases. Slums, favelas and other informal dwellings are particular risk hotspots. This episode hears from Dr Erin Staples from the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and Dr Matthew Steele of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
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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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Disruption to routine immunization
COVID-19 has had a heavy toll on immunization services.
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23 million children missed out on basic childhood vaccines through routine health services in 2020; 3.7 million more than in 2019. Most of them likely did not receive a single vaccine during the year, widening the already immense inequities in access to vaccines, and leaving them at risk from devastating but preventable diseases like measles, polio or meningitis, and of course, yellow fever.*
The impact on YF routine immunization has been that only 27% (4.8 million) of the targeted birth cohort for 2020 was vaccinated. These statistics have been provided by the World Health Organization (WHO).
In addition to routine immunization disruptions, there are currently around 60 postponed mass vaccination campaigns in over 40 countries, for measles, polio, yellow fever and other diseases, affecting millions more people.
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Earlier this year, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, warned “Multiple disease outbreaks would be catastrophic for communities and health systems already battling COVID-19, making it more urgent than ever to invest in childhood vaccination and ensure every child is reached.”
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance has produced this video to raise awareness of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on routine immunisation, and also to offer some hope – highlighting the resilience of lower-income countries in getting their immunisation programmes back on track by the end of 2020. Further information and data is available in the Gavi Annual Progress Report 2020, which can be downloaded here.
*Source: https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/covid-19-pandemic-leads-major-backsliding-childhood-vaccinations-new-who-unicef-data
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Democratic Republic of Congo
In Equateur, the yellow fever vaccination campaigns will be underway in October, with Phase 3/5 provinces (Nord Kivu and Ituri) scheduled for January 2022. These campaigns are aiming to protect over 18 million people.
Nigeria
As reported in previous months, Nigeria is planning multiple vaccination campaigns for yellow fever in 2021. These will take place in Abia, Imo, Ebonyi, Taraba and Borno. All states will be integrated with at least one other antigen. All states will be combined with measles and some states will also be combined with Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV), which is delivered door-to-door to ensure high uptake by the community.
Activities are planned to begin in early November, while Ogun and Gombe states have been postponed to January 2022 due to time of vaccine arrival.
Republic of Congo
The Republic of Congo is planning yellow fever vaccination campaigns from mid-November through December of this year. These campaigns aim to protect over 4 million people in almost all departments, except Pointe Noire.
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Cassandra Quintanilla is a Senior Programme Manager in the Vaccine Programmes team at Gavi. She has served as vaccine focal point since 2016 starting in measles, followed by pneumococcal vaccines and more recently with yellow fever, meningococcal and Japanese encephalitis vaccines.
Before joining Gavi, Cassandra worked at the Global Fund in Geneva and in her native Mexico with social and cultural projects. She has an MBA specialized in management of International Organizations and background in social studies.
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Cassandra is part of the EYE Programme Management group, as well as the Vaccine Delivery and Supply & Demand working groups.
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October
The 7th Annual Laboratory Technical Working Group (LTWG) meeting is scheduled for 20th and 21st October 2021
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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 Summer Time (CEST). To register your attendance, click here.
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EYE mask challenge
This month’s shout out is to Carla Jauregui, who is working with the EYE Secretariat on its resource mobilization strategy, and is based in London!
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
To contact EYE, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Copyright © 2021 World Health Organization, All rights reserved.
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