The Addis Declaration on Immunization: A binding reminder of the political support needed to achieve universal immunization in Africa.

While African countries have improved access to immunization since the start of the millennium, progress has stagnated in the last few years. One in five African children is not vaccinated with life-saving vaccines, and recent outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs) including yellow fever, measles, and meningitis, among others point to gaps in immunization coverage as well as disease surveillance. In 2017, African Heads of State endorsed the Addis Declaration on Immunization (ADI) at the 28th African Union Summit and committed to ensuring universal access to immunization across the continent.

Bacterial Meningitis Epidemiology in Five Countries in the Meningitis Belt of Sub-Saharan Africa, 2015-2017.

Background: The MenAfriNet Consortium supports strategic implementation of case-based meningitis surveillance in key high-risk countries of the African meningitis belt: Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger, and Togo. We describe bacterial meningitis epidemiology in these 5 countries in 2015-2017.

Methods: Case-based meningitis surveillance collects case-level demographic and clinical information and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) laboratory results.

Contribution of polio eradication initiative to strengthening routine immunization: Lessons learnt in the WHO African region.

Background: Important investments were made in countries for the polio eradication initiative. On 25 September 2015, a major milestone was achieved when Nigeria was removed from the list of polio-endemic countries. Routine Immunization, being a key pillar of polio eradication initiative needs to be strengthened to sustain the gains made in countries.