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{
"id": 1340979,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1340979/?format=api",
"text_counter": 249,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Dr Susan Nakhumicha",
"speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary for Health",
"speaker": null,
"content": "The fourth agency is the World Health Organisation (WHO), which provides global public health advice and technical support to countries. During outbreaks, it focuses on vaccine stockpile management, surveillance, preparedness and response to disease outbreaks. It also functions as the Secretariat of the ICG. Vaccine manufacturers, vaccine equipment providers and financial donor institutions are also engaged in the ICG operations. The core mandate of ICG is to make available and ensure equitable access to licensed vaccines for Cholera, Meningitis, Yellow Fever, and Ebola virus disease during outbreaks. The ICG manages the global emergency vaccine stockpiles and works with partners, donors, manufacturers and determines their size and composition with the goal of ensuring that adequate stocks of emergency supplies are accessible for emergency response. Vaccine security stocks can be accessed by any country facing an epidemic anywhere in the world, as long as the country’s request fulfills ICG's criteria for the release of vaccine stocks. As a first step, a country must complete and submit a request to the ICG Secretariat using the standard application form. The annexes and other relevant documents should be submitted with the application. Countries are encouraged to submit the request to the ICG Secretariat within seven days after confirmation of the outbreak. The ICG Secretariat at WHO then circulates the request to the ICG members from the four agencies within one day after reception and reviews the country's submission. Additional information can be requested from the country, if need be. Requests are evaluated considering the epidemiological situation, vaccination strategy, vaccine availability in the emergency stockpile, pre-existing stocks in the country and operational aspects of the epidemic response. The GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, finances the ICG's stockpiles of Cholera, Ebola, Meningitis and Yellow Fever vaccines. The GAVI eligible countries can receive the vaccines free of cost. Non-GAVI supported countries are responsible for reimbursing the cost of the vaccines and its transport, and for finding a source for the operational costs of the campaign. Once the request for vaccine supplies has been approved by the ICG members, a process is put in place to ship the vaccines and supplies. Prior to shipment, the recipient country must demonstrate that there is sufficient cold chain capacity to receive and store the vaccines and supplies. Additionally, customs and regulatory approvals must be granted and provided to UNICEF. As a country, we have categorised all counties according to their cholera risk status as part of our national plan. For the February campaign, we received 842,952 doses of the vaccine which were sent to Dadaab and Fafi sub-counties, and refugee camps. We also received 1,370,991 doses of the Euvichol Vaccine which we sent to Bura, Lagdera, Garissa, Wajir East and South, Embakasi East and Mathare. The GAVI Alliance supported the vaccine and operational costs of the campaign. The WHO was responsible for funds administration in- country. During the current round, we targeted 13 counties based on their confirmation of outbreaks. However, only 5 high-risk counties namely: Nairobi, Kajiado, Marsabit, Homa Bay and Wajir were approved, including institutions in Machakos and new arrival refugees in Garissa. Mandera East was also considered in the Mandera Triangle Application that had included all the counties bordering Somalia and Ethiopia. A total of l, 710, 900 vaccine doses were approved for August 2023 campaign. From the foregoing, only small fractions of our requests are approved for outbreak response. This is because of the limited global stockpiles. There are many ongoing Cholera outbreaks in many parts of the world, including our neighbouring African countries. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}