November / December EYE Strategy Newsletter 

Dear partners and colleagues,

We hope you have had a restful holiday season and a great start to the new year. 

We were delighted to see so many of you at the 6th EYE Annual Partners’ Meeting in November last year. It was another successful meeting with close to 180 participants each day. We were fortunate to have an excellent roster of speakers and guests, with senior stakeholders from our key partners providing important addresses on both days. 

If you would like to revisit any of the presentations or discussions, or were not able to join us, please click on the links below to watch the meeting.

Day 1: CLICK HERE TO VIEW
Day 2: CLICK HERE TO VIEW

The meeting materials, including speaker presentations, agenda and videos, can be accessed by clicking here.

For any other information relating to the meeting, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Archive image: Training for initial set up of YF MAC ELISA in Niamey, Niger 2021 

Country updates

Reactive vaccination campaigns (RVCs) 

All RVCs are approved by the International Coordinating Group on Vaccine Provision (ICG) and supported by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.  

Niger

This outbreak response in three districts in Niger (Keita, Madoua and Tchirozerine) is now complete. The response has protected over 1 million people (from the age of nine months to 60 years).   

This outbreak response was triggered by the notification of yellow fever (YF) cases in these three districts, with dates of onset from June through to August 2022. The situation was made more complex by the circulation of Hepatitis E in some parts of the country; an infection that can have similar clinical features to YF.   

Central African Republic (CAR)   

CAR has been experiencing an outbreak of YF since late 2021, with a total of 22 confirmed cases. The most recently confirmed case was onset on 24th September 2022 and the country is investigating a new potential outbreak in a previously unaffected district.

The country was endorsed by the ICG for a response in March 2022 that aimed to protect approximately 475,000 people in three districts: Batangafo-Kabo, Haut Mbombou and Nangha-Boguila.  

As part of the outbreak response, the first YF RVC was launched on 13th July 2022 and was completed in September 2022. Delays were due to logistical and security constraints.  

The Bambari and Kembe Satema YF RVCs were launched in early November 2022 and are now complete. Security problems occurred in both health districts. The two YF RVCs aimed to protect approximately 736,727 people. 

Preventive mass vaccination campaigns (PMVCs) 

Uganda    

We reported last month that Uganda has completed its rollout of YF vaccine into its routine immunization (RI) programme. This is a major achievement for the country.  

A multi-year PMVC is also planned, with a short delay in the start date, now anticipated for January 2023.  

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)  

The YF PMVCs have commenced in accessible parts of Sud Kivu, including urban areas. Implementation is continuing in January in the remaining provinces of Sud Kivu, as well as in Sankuru and Maniema. 

Further YF PMVCs are planned in Lomami, Kasai, East Kasai and Central Kasai for early 2023. Overall, the campaigns will aim to protect around 28 million people.     

Nigeria   

The YF PMVCs in Borno, Kano, Enugu, and Adamawa states have now been completed, protecting over 22.5 million people.

The campaign in Bayelsa state has been postponed until the first quarter of 2023 due to significant floods in the state.   

Press release

Kwara State, Nigeria, bolsters strategy to curb yellow fever scourge

Mr Ahmed is one of the vaccinators administering the yellow fever vaccines and other life-saving routine immunization (RI) vaccines to children under one at the nomadic settlements in Kaiama LGA. 

Kaiama LGA hosts many nomadic settlements and is a hard-to-reach and security-compromised area in Kwara state. Getting to the settlements requires health workers to travel on bad roads, canoes and bikes.    

Mr Ahmed says, “the yellow fever outreach is a reactive response to the suspected and confirmed case of yellow fever in the locality.  

“Recently, a confirmed case of yellow fever was reported in a six-year-old girl from Ruggar Budo. This spurred the intervention and the team leveraged the exercise to administer other RI immunization to the children, especially those who had missed out on their immunization schedule." 

To read the full press release, click here.

Laboratory 

Laboratory Technical Working Group (LTWG) launches 'EYE-LABS' website

EYE-LABS is a platform where all activities and resources linked to the World Health Organization (WHO) coordinated YF testing laboratory activities are posted as part of the overarching EYE Strategy.

The purpose is to provide a single area for the general public, external partners, and members of the Global Yellow Fever Laboratory Network (GYFLaN) to access laboratory information relevant to YF diagnostic testing in African and Eastern Mediterranean regions, and the region of the Americas.

Click here to access the website.

Congratulations to our colleagues in the US CDC

Staff at US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC) awarded for work on EYE Strategy

The US CDC is one of the EYE Strategy’s global partners. CDC provides some funding, training, and technical support to further the EYE Strategy mission. Thanks to their contributions over the last two years, CDC staff were recently recognized at the agency’s annual honour awards ceremony with an award for Excellence in International Program Delivery.

The award highlights efforts led by staff from CDC’s Arboviral Diseases Branch (ADB) to assess risk in endemic countries, which helps to prioritize the allocation of available YF vaccine doses. The same team also worked with several countries to develop phased, multi-year campaign plans based on subnational YF risk.

Staff were also responsible for obtaining $6.2M of Cares Act funding and working with UNICEF to procure necessary personnel protective equipment (PPE) and infection prevention control (IPC) supplies for YF PMVCs. The PPE and IPC supplies helped prevent COVID-19 transmission and allowed YF PMVC to move ahead safely and as planned.

In addition to improving YF vaccination rates, strong laboratory capacity is critical for early detection of YF disease cases and swift implementation of vaccine control measures. In 2021, ADB staff validated the performance of the first commercially available molecular test kit for YF, which is currently under evaluation for WHO-prequalification. This will allow it to be readily available to all endemic countries and decrease the time needed to identify a case from three to 0.5 days.

In the last two years, ADB has also continued to provide technical support and guidance for serologic test supply bundles containing ADB-produced YF-specific reagents, which allow laboratories in YF-endemic countries to perform testing.

The team also developed and coordinated distribution of external quality assurance (EQA) panels and established a way to stabilize YF-virus Ribonucleic acid (RNA) for sample transportation at any temperature for testing at a national level. Finally, staff continued to provide laboratory training assistance in endemic countries, albeit remotely due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.

Actions taken by ADB staff will sustain YF laboratory testing capacity and decrease the risk of YF outbreaks for decades to come. Strong partnerships such as this are key to the success of the EYE Strategy. 

Training 

Group photo from the regional workshop held in Entebbe, Uganda to strengthen the Regional Reference Laboratory’s (RRL) confirmatory capacities using chimeric virus. Hosted by the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) in November 2022. 

Publications  

WHO Disease Outbreak News (DON) - African Region (AFRO)

Below is an update on the yellow fever situation in the WHO African Region since the last disease outbreak news was published on 2nd September 2022.

From 1st January 2021 to 7th December 2022, a total of 203 confirmed and 252 probable cases with 40 deaths (Case Fatality Ratio 9%) were reported to WHO from 13 countries in the WHO African Region. To read the full DON, click here. 

Surveillance and control of arboviral diseases in the WHO African Region: assessment of country capacities 

Authors: The Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), the WHO department of control of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) and the WHO Regional Office for Africa (AFRO)

The growing threat and recent epidemics of Aedes-borne arboviral infections in Africa has put into question the adequacy of public health systems to control these vector-borne diseases. Adequacy relies on countries’ capacity to assure timely, effective epidemiological and entomological surveillance and control of arboviral diseases to identify, prevent and respond to outbreaks.

TDR, NTD and AFRO conducted a cross-sectional survey to determine the current capacity of countries in the African Region. A self-administered questionnaire covering seven relevant domains was used to measure capacity.

All 47 countries in the African Region contributed to the survey, and all the results for each dimension at regional and sub-regional levels are reported in this publication. Click here to read full report.

Vaccination requirements and recommendations for international travellers; and malaria situation per country – 2022 edition

The 2022 edition of vaccination requirements and recommendations for international travellers; and malaria situation per country is now published. This list includes only countries or areas where WHO has determined there is a risk of yellow fever transmission and/or where there are country requirements for travellers. Click on the links below for the full list and for the yellow fever annex.

Country List | Annex 1 – yellow fever