Feature Stories

Africa’s largest-ever vaccination drive is well under way. Forty-nine African countries are rolling out COVID-19 vaccines and over 22 million doses have been given on the continent. Valuable lessons are emerging, but major risks and challenges threaten Africa’s fragile gains.

The emergence of COVID-19 and the pandemic have raised many challenges regarding treatment and spawned the use of unproven therapies. Professor Lucille Blumberg, the Deputy Director of the South African National Institute for Communicable Diseases, discusses the causes, the risks and how to tackle unproven COVID-19 cures.

On a sultry morning in early March in the small town of Gouécké in south-eastern Guinea, scores of concerned community and customary leaders gathered for a meeting with WHO’s local team of social anthropologists.

Vaccines save millions of lives each year. In August 2020, Africa crossed a historic milestone when it was certified as free of wild polio. Vaccination drives, reaching up to 220 million African children multiple times every year, were integral to achieving this historic milestone.

With 47 African countries now rolling out COVID-19 vaccines and over 17 million doses given on the continent, early insights from Africa’s largest-ever immunization drive offer hope, inspiration and early, yet vital lessons. Here, we shine a light on key lessons emerging from countries that have made strong progress, including Angola, Ghana, Mauritius and Rwanda.

Over the past two decades, the world has made great progress in reducing malaria cases and deaths, but the pace has stalled in many high malaria burden African countries. Global malaria cases dropped by 29% between 2000 and 2019, but only by 2% between 2015 and 2019 when deaths fell by 15% compared with 60% between 2000 and 2019. Professor Francis Omaswa, Executive Director, African Centre for Global Health and Social Transformation, explains what needs to be done to get malaria control and prevention back on track

Cabo Verde has gone for three consecutive years – as of January 2021 – without local malaria transmission, becoming eligible to apply for the World Health Organization (WHO) certification of malaria elimination.

Clara Magalasi, who lives in a rural village near Lilongwe, the capital city of Malawi, woke up to a grey morning with a dull sky that was threatening rain. For Clara, the weather did not stop her from walking 4 kilometers to Chileka Health Centre. Her daughter Grace Butawo, who just turned 22 months, was due for her fourth and final dose of the RTS,S malaria vaccine. According to Clara, she was conscious about the dates to take her child for the final dose of the malaria vaccine as she understands its benefits.

The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, just concluded a week-long visit to Ethiopia to acknowledge the country’s efforts to sustain essential health services alongside the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, learn about the progress and challenges in the health response to the humanitarian situation in northern Ethiopia, and reaffirm WHO’s commitment to support these efforts. 

Imam El hadj Moussa Soumahoro wears a serious face. He has just ended a morning sermon that concluded with Ebola preventive messages and the importance of vaccination against the virus that recently re-emerged in Guinea for the first time since the 2014–2016 outbreak. Soumahoro has joined the fight against the disease.