LISDEL Contributed During Symposium To Mark African Vaccine Week (AVW)

The Executive Director of the Legislative Initiative for Sustainable Development (LISDEL) Mrs. Juliana Abude-Aribo joined other stakeholders in health at a symposium to mark African Vaccine Week (AVW) 2022.

AVW is an annual event celebrated during the last week of April with the aim of promoting the use of vaccines to protect Africans from preventable diseases.

At a symposium held on Wednesday in Abuja to mark the African Vaccine Week (AVW), stakeholders in the health sector gathered to review the progress of immunization in Nigeria, highlighting overdependence on foreign countries for vaccines, poor research capacity, inadequate funding, and lack of accountability as some of the reasons why advancement in local vaccine production in Nigeria has remained slow.

The symposium was organized by the West African Institute of Public Health (WAIPH) with support of the Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health @scale (PACFaH@Scale/PAS), among other partners.

Health experts, government officials, civil society organizations, and international partners attended the one-day high-level event with the theme; “Equitable Vaccines Access: Resilient Communities.”

In his presentation at the symposium, professor of virology and former president of the Nigeria Academy of Science, Oyewale Tomori, said local vaccine production in Nigeria will remain a tall dream if some key issues hindering the efforts are not addressed.

He stressed that for Africa to witness growth in vaccine production, leaders must invest in research and adopt the knowledge and capacity of young persons for physical development in the country.

Juliana Abude-Aribo in her comment emphasized the need to harness the statutory functions of the Legislature (Legislation, appropriation, representation, Oversight and accountability) as tools for ensuring access to vaccine and vaccine production in the country.

Also speaking, Abdulsalami Nasidi, a pioneer director of National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), stressed the need for African leaders to act fast in setting up policies and enabling environments that will ensure equitable vaccine production to meet the teeming demand.

In his remark, Dr Francis Ohanyido, the Director-General of WAIPH, organizers of the event, said one of the biggest challenges to vaccine distribution in Nigeria is poor health literacy, especially in rural communities. According to Dr Francis, there is need for involvement of CSOs and the media for Africa to achieve success in local vaccine production and distribution.

Contributed by Philip Akoso, LISDEL