- Hon’ble Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India
- Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization
- South-East Asia Regional Immunization Technical Advisory Group
- National Immunization Technical Advisory Groups from our Member States
- Regional Certification Commission for Polio Eradication
- Regional Verification Commission for Measles and Rubella Elimination
- National EPI programme managers,
- Representatives from Ministries of Health of our Member States
- Representatives of partner agencies
- Participants, colleagues and friends.
A very good morning to you all, and welcome to this 15th Meeting of the WHO South-East Asia Regional Immunization Technical Advisory Group (I-TAG).
This year marks the 50th year of the launch of WHOs Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI). For 50 years, WHO has worked to ensure universal access to life-saving vaccines for children and families across the life course. At its inception, EPI focused on protecting all children against six childhood illnesses, including tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, and measles. Today, this number has grown to 13 universally recommended vaccines across the life course, and 17 additional vaccines with context-dependent recommendations. Many more promising vaccines are in the pipeline.
At the outset, I would like to begin by expressing my gratitude to all current and past Regional and National Immunization Technical Advisory Group members for their continued technical support and guidance over the last 5 decades.
I would also like to thank and congratulate all National Programme managers, staff, and Immunization Champions, for the significant efforts they have made.
Today, our South-East Asia Region continues to be free of wild polio virus transmission and has maintained elimination of maternal and neonatal tetanus as a public health problem.
5 countries have eliminated measles and rubella, and 6 countries have controlled hepatitis B through immunization.
7 countries consistently reach over 90% of children with three doses of diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus (DTP3) vaccines
We can proudly say, in the last 50 years, together, we have helped hundreds of millions of people in our Region live healthier, longer, more productive, and prosperous lives.
In fact, our Region is also largest producer of EPI vaccines, accounting for more than half of global vaccine production. It should be mentioned that manufacturers have a significant role to enhance safe and higher access vaccines.
Of course, as we know, despite these successes, we have a lot of work still to do. Our journey is far from complete and comes with the additional responsibility of ensuring equitable access to vaccines to a quarter of the world’s birth cohort.
We missed the target date to eliminate measles and rubella by 2023. The WHO/UNICEF Estimates of National Immunization Coverage data released last month has pointed out that there was no meaningful change in coverage compared to 2022, and performance was not yet restored to 2019 levels. Nearly 3.4 million children in our Region did not get all the vaccines being offered under the childhood immunization programme, and 2.7 million among them did not get any. We need to understand where and why these children were missed and prioritize reaching them as soon as possible. No child should ever fall sick or die of any vaccine preventable disease, when safe and effective vaccines exist to protect them.
This stagnation in post-pandemic recovery and strengthening of coverage, highlights the need to innovate. We need to find locally impactful approaches, and most critically, enhance the political and social leadership that are the basis for intensified actions needed to meet our Regional targets.
As you know, our Regional Roadmap for Results and Resilience lays out one of our priorities as ‘reaffirming investment in women, girls, adolescents and vulnerable populations’. Against this, I am concerned to see low HPV coverage among girls. This is not acceptable, and we must ensure all adolescent girls in our Region are protected and get at least one dose of HPV. SAGE guidance on single dose of the HPV vaccine should boost coverages in the region.
Revitalizing immunization programmes, strengthening community-centered health systems, ensuring vaccine supply, and boosting demand through community engagement are critical components of success. Policy and resources should urgently prioritize routine immunization, particularly for measles, and focus on reducing zero-dose and partially vaccinated children.
The focus must be on tailored approaches, identified in consultation with the affected communities. Local solutions to local issues must show us the way forward. No matter how challenging or remote the setting is, we will need to find new ways to reach the children most at risk of life-threatening diseases.
I understand this meeting will review the progress towards various targets and goals on immunization that we have jointly agreed to in our “WHO- SEA Regional Vaccine Implementation Plan 2022-2026.” This meeting will also identify good practices, share lessons learnt, and I hope will also share innovative local recommendations to help us reach these children. It will also, I trust, set realistic new targets where we have missed.
I have three key messages to all of you.
- Aim for the “Big Catch-up” – vaccinate all zero dose and partially vaccinated children, and restore immunization progress lost during the pandemic
- Protect all adolescent girls from cervical cancer
- Accelerate efforts to eliminate Measles and Rubella by 2026
I’d like to reiterate that I, and our entire Regional Office, are committed to provide the necessary technical support to ensure that the recommendations of this meeting are implemented speedily, and efficiently.
Thank you all for your efforts. I wish you productive deliberations, and continued success for a healthier, more equitable and sustainable South-East Asia for all who live in it.
Thank you.