A medical doctor with an MSc in Communicable Diseases Epidemiology, Dr Shibeshi was previously Assistant Professor of Paediatrics in her native Ethiopia’s Jimma Institute of Health Sciences. Since joining WHO in 1997, she’s worked in Ethiopia, Ghana and Kenya, where she assisted seven African countries, before covering East and Southern Africa from Harare, Zimbabwe. 

What drives your commitment to this work?

My dream was to be a paediatric specialist, but the realization that most of the children in Ethiopia and Africa die due to vaccine preventable diseases marked a turning point for me. It steered me in a new direction, and WHO has given me the opportunity to move from clinical medicine to public health, focusing on disease prevention on a massive scale. 

I am privileged to be on the frontlines of WHO’s efforts to fight vaccine preventable diseaseoutbreaks and to set up response measures across countries, and to apply these lessons in the fight against COVID-19.

If we don’t act fast during emergencies every hour can cost more precious lives and add to the overwhelming burden on our public health systems. Supporting our countries to implement vaccination programmes that result in high vaccination coverage is therefore crucial. It requires efforts to both boost vaccine uptake and minimize vaccine hesitancy.

What are you most proud of?

Our wealth of experience in introducing new vaccines and setting up outbreak prevention measures has been invaluable in coordinating the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines. But equally important has been our work with partners to share WHO-approved tools and guidelines. 

Africa’s rich experience in reaching unvaccinated children through the WHO-AFRO Reach Every Child approach (now adapted for vaccination along the life course), has progressively improved immunization coverage among Africa’s children. This was boosted by our experience with immunization drives for polio, measles, yellow fever and meningitis, along with numerous new vaccine introductions. 

All this has been invaluable in helping us to assist countries in developing their COVID-19 National Deployment and Vaccination Plans, which act as a roadmap to prioritize high-risk populations and to ensure the equitable allocation of vaccines, wherever people live. 

Overall, this has allowed WHO to fulfil our crucial role of leading and guiding countries through this overwhelming challenge to help turn the tide on the COVID-19 pandemic. 

What are the main challenges for Africa’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout?

COVID-19 vaccines are just one part of the response, but vaccine supply constraints pose a serious threat to the health and welfare of people on the African continent. 

I would like to amplify the call from WHO to those countries that have already vaccinated their high-risk populations to share their excess doses. Many African countries are struggling and we cannot afford to wait until late 2022 to protect only our high-risk groups. Let us remember the world is interconnected, and that if Africa lags behind, there will be implications for the rest of the world.

The unpredictability of supplies demands an agile approach to the vaccine rollout from us, and our teams are on high alert to assist countries around the clock. More delays in vaccinations will only exacerbate the emergence of new variants of the virus. 

Having said that, if it hadn’t been for the COVAX Facility, many African countries wouldn’t even have the small number of doses they have received so far.