Introduction: Rubella is a mild febrile rash illness caused by the rubella virus. The most serious consequence of rubella is congenital rubella syndrome (CRS), which occurs if the primary rubella infection occurs during early pregnancy, with subsequent infection of the placenta and the developing fetus.
Methods: WHO supported countries to set up sentinel surveillance for CRS using standard case definitions, protocols, and case classification scheme. This descriptive analysis summarises the data from 5 countries which have been regularly reporting.
Results: A total of 383 suspected cases of CRS were notified from the 5 countries as of December 2016, of which 52 cases were laboratory confirmed and 67 were confirmed on clinical grounds.The majority (43%) of confirmed CRS cases were in the age group 6 - 11 months. The most common major clinical manifestation (Group A) among the confirmed cases is congenital heart disease (72%) followed by cataracts (32%) and glaucoma (10%).
Discussion and conclusions: The number of years of reporting from these sentinel sites is too short to describe trends in CRS occurrence across the years. However, the limited surveillance data has yielded comparable information with other developing countries prior to introduction of rubella vaccine. As more countries introduce rubella vaccine into their immunisation programs, there is a need to ensure that all rubella outbreaks are thoroughly investigated and documented, to expand sentinel surveillance for CRS in more countries in the Region, and to complement this with retrospective record reviews for CRS cases in selected countries.
The 5th edition of the African Vaccination Week (AVW) kicked off in Lusaka, Zambia, on 23 April 2016, the same day as did the 4th World Immunization Week (WIW), and vaccination week in other WHO regions. The theme was "Save lives, prevent disabilities, vaccinate!". The aim was to draw attention to the need to attain universal immunization coverage in the African Region by closing the immunization gap, while also celebrating the important polio eradication milestone reached in the African Region. Twenty-eight (59.6%) of the 47 countries in the African Region celebrated the AVW within the regionally set dates of 24th to 30th April 2015. However, given its flexibility, the celebration continued until September in 15 other countries in the Region. Three countries, namely Comoros, Gabon, and Cape Verde did not join the celebration for the 2015 edition of the AVW. Countries used the opportunity to introduce new vaccines into their routine immunization. Populations, hitherto unreached with basic health services were reached with needed services, such as vitamin A supplementation, deworming, and catch up immunization services. The programmes promoted awareness of the benefits of vaccines and the rights of communities to demand vaccines and immunization services to save lives and prevent disabilities. The number of participating countries rose steadily from 40 in 2011 to 43 and 46 countries in 2013 and 2014 respectively. The number ranged from one intervention integrated with AVW in 17 countries to 5 interventions integrated with the AVW in three countries. In 2015, 67.4% of the participating countries integrated other interventions with AVW activities.
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