Sri Lanka stands tall as World Immunization Week 2022 is commemorated from April 24-30 around the theme ‘Long Life for All’.
World Immunization Week aims to turn the spotlight on the need for collective action across the globe to promote the use of vaccines to protect men, women and children against disease.
Immunization has proven to be crucial in ensuring a long life well lived for people of all ages as evidenced by the vaccines against COVID-19 which prevented severe disease and death.
Since the introduction of the vaccine against smallpox by Edward Jenner way back in 1798, over the years there has been a drastic reduction in the burden of bacterial and viral diseases across the world through vaccination. Smallpox has been eradicated and poliomyelitis is on the verge of eradication.
While in Sri Lanka, the last case of virologically-confirmed poliomyelitis was reported back in 1993, the introduction of routine immunization has also reduced the incidence of several vaccine-preventable diseases. Great strides have been made through the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) of the World Health Organization (WHO), with assistance from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other donors.
From the time vaccination against smallpox was introduced to Sri Lanka, there has never been a diversion from immunization, with a long line of life-saving jabs or drops being administered. Currently the country’s National Immunization Programme has a coverage of nearly 100% with parents, especially mothers, queueing up early morning at grass-root level health offices (the Medical Officer of Health offices) on the specified date to give their little ones the vaccines. The children’s immunization cards are safeguarded like gold even in the humblest homes in the country.
As the COVID-19 pandemic hit and there was an urgent need to protect people against the new coronavirus through vaccines, Sri Lanka’s Immunization Programme built on a solid foundation was the vehicle through which these vaccinations were rolled out on a national-scale.
The foundation was a well-functioning routine immunization network which included adequate health workers and an effective supply-chain inclusive of cold storage facilities for rapid roll-out.
Thus, held steady by the publicly-funded primary health care system, Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 response has been spearheaded by its vaccination effort, meeting all WHO set targets for population coverage ahead of the timeline, sustained by significant government investment.
Sixty-five percent of the population has been vaccinated with both doses of a vaccine against COVID-19 and the country is on-track to achieving the next target of 70% coverage by mid-2022.
This initiative has been supported by a ‘whole of government and whole of society’ approach, with strong community mobilization; addressing of misinformation on COVID-19 vaccines; and promotion of vaccination among adolescents and adults and the booster doses among the elderly by overcoming hesitancy.
With a health information system in place, information technology has been utilized to introduce an innovative Vaccine Tracker that provides updates on the availability of vaccines, the status of vaccines administered and the issuance of vaccination cards.
Building on an already-available structure with regard to vaccines, Sri Lanka would be able to face future threats with equanimity as the country did with COVID-19.