The Sultanate has granted annually $50,000 to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Yellow Fever Initiative over a period of five years to support the WHO campaign to raise funds for an aggressive immunisation campaign for yellow fever.
“The Sultanate is the first country in the GCC and WHO’s countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office (EMRO) to contribute to this initiative, specifically targeted for countries where yellow fever is prominent”, said Dr Marie-Paule Kieny, Assistant Director-General of Information, Evidence and Research Cluster from the WHO — Headquarters, at a press briefing yesterday.
“The WHO is very grateful and fortunate that the Sultanate has accepted to engage a significant and long term financial support to this initiative to respond to an outbreak of yellow fever in any country when ever needed.”
Among such countries that would significantly benefit from this vaccine initiative include countries of the Sub-Saharan Africa and many other countries of the world that are chiefly afflicted by this disease, she told reporters.
According to delegates of the WHO Headquarters, about $300 million over the time is needed in support of the yellow fever campaign.
“Yellow fever is a major health emergency in certain regions, especially in Sub- Saharan Africa and yet there is vaccine against the disease, which can have effectively been used to respond to the outbreak and to protect the population at risk particularly in poor countries”.
Currently, yellow fever vaccination is provided to poor and lower economy countries in Africa through funding by the global partners in immunisation and bilateral assistance with the WHO in support of this kind of initiatives, she stated.
The purpose of her tour to the region is to provoke networking for regional vaccine self-reliance and networking for food safety to determine the safety of the imported and exported food for the safety of the public.
The visit is also aimed at promoting innovative research and intellectual property and to explore the potential contribution on several aspects of health security, hepatitis and meningitis.
Her visit to the Sultanate is also aimed at looking at how the WHO and the Sultanate can work together to improve the health issues in this part of the world given the fact that the Sultanate is an example of an excellent health system in the region.
On this WHO further plans to support the Government of Oman to strengthen the framework on the qualities of research and to link the policies to the standards that are being developed globally, she said.
Oman Observer