The resurgence of vaccine preventable diseases in Liberia : Public health implications for West Africa

As the Ebola crisis raged on in Liberia, the under five immunization rate plummeted. Needless to say, this was due to the collapse of a health system that was already over stretched and struggling prior to the crisis.

By the time the health centres and clinics reopened, parents and care givers became reluctant to take their children and wards to the same places that had just been recently tagged Ebola Zones for routine immunizations. This further dropped the immunization rate in the country.
The people were simply afraid of catching the virus through the exposure.

In the first quarter of year 2015, it's sad to note that more than 560 children contracted measles and another 500 whooping cough.
It's been said that these kind of figures have not been seen in Liberia for a long while.

Vaccination rates have since begun to improve and especially now that the country has been declared free of Ebola, more improvement is expected as measles vaccination campaigns continue.

The WHO announced in April, during the global immunization week that the global immunization target for 2015 is off track.
1 in 5 children are still said to be missing out on routine immunization. Needless to say, most of these children live in the developing world.

This coupled with the poor vaccination rates in Ebola Stricken communities, signifies to us that a wide immunization gap currently exists in West Africa. Hence,if adequate measures are not taken to nip it in the bud it may get wider.

Given this premise, one would wonder at the health implication of this situation in the other surrounding West African nations.

Gaps in immunization put many more children at risk.
It only takes one case of Polio crossing the border to start a polio epidemic in a neighboring country. The same can be said of measles, whooping cough and other vaccine preventable diseases.

Borders have reopened and travelers, traders and visitors are crossing the borders at will on daily basis, although border security is still said to be tight in the Ebola affected nations. This implies that at any point in time a child incubating or actively ill with any of these diseases  may cross the border into another territory thereby putting the children in that region at risk.

If adequate care is not taken, some regions in West Africa may be plunged into epidemics that the health systems currently in operation in those communities are not equipped to handle, which could further worsen the state of things in the region.

This may further worsen the under five mortality rate in the region. According to a report by the World Bank,some of the countries with the highest child mortality rates are located in West and Central Africa.

Hence immunization rates in all West African Nations should be increased in a bid to maintain the already achieved feats in immunization and also in an effort to protect the lives of the children: who are the future of these nations.

A decrease in under five mortality rates does not just negatively impact the nation today, it also has long term, generational and far reaching economic impacts.

More efforts need to be made to vaccinate children in hard to reach and dangerous areas.
More effective immunization campaigns and outreaches need to be organized.
The media also needs to be made aware of the help needed with the propagation of this message : radio and television stations, SMS technology, magazines, bulletins, pamphlets as well as internet technology should be used to raise the awareness bar.

Every individual should make it a personal responsibility to ensure the immunization of those in their households as well as spread the news to friends, neighbors and colleagues.

Obviously, some or all of these is already being done, however more needs to be done. More awareness campaigns and community enlightenment programs are needed, to help Subsaharan Africa attain and overshoot set immunization targets.