[Vaccination and development in sub-Saharian Africa]

Abstract

The African economy will only be able to develop significantly if several public health issues are first addressed. The infantile mortality rate is an excellent index of a population's overall health status. Infections being responsible for more than 60% of deaths, vaccination is crucial. The Expanded Program of Immunization (EPI) (Programme Elargi de Vaccination) launched in 1974 has avoided countless deaths. Until the early 1990s, vaccine coverage of the program's target diseases (tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, poliomyelitis, measles, yellow fever and hepatitis B) increased rapidly. It then began to decline, however, owing to financial, sociopolitical and vaccine supply problems. Since 2000, this downward trend has been partially reversed, notably through the creation of GAVI and the development of vaccines industries in poor countries. The outlook is brighter now than it has been for some time.