Top

Published in:

Open Access 01-12-2016 | Letter to Editor

Displaced populations due to humanitarian emergencies and its impact on global eradication and elimination of vaccine-preventable diseases

Authors: Eugene Lam, Michael Diaz, Allen Gidraf Kahindo Maina, Muireann Brennan

Published in: Conflict and Health | Issue 1/2016

Abstract

Populations affected by humanitarian emergencies may require unique strategies to ensure access to life-saving vaccines and attain sufficiently high population immunity to interrupt virus circulation. Vaccination strategies among displaced populations should not be an afterthought and must be part of the vaccine-preventable disease eradication and elimination initiatives from the start.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), UNHCR Mid-Year Trends 2015. 2015. Available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/568fbb8f4.html . Accessed 12 Mar 2016.

Connolly MA, Gayer M, Ryan MJ, Salama P, Spiegel P, Heymann DL. Communicable diseases in complex emergencies: impact and challenges. Lancet. 2004;364(9449):1974–83.CrossRefPubMed

Dowdle WR. The principles of disease elimination and eradication. Bull World Health Organ. 1998;76 Suppl 2:22–5.PubMedPubMedCentral

Global Polio Eradication Initiative, Polio Eradication & Endgame Strategic Plan 2013–2018. 2013. Available at: http://www.polioeradication.org/Portals/0/Document/Resources/StrategyWork/PEESP_EN_US.pdf. Accessed 12 Mar 2016.

World Health Organization, Global Measles and Rubella Strategic Plan 2012–2020. 2012. Available at: http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/44855/1/9789241503396_eng.pdf. Accessed 13 Mar 2016.

Eichner M, Brockmann SO. Polio emergence in Syria and Israel endangers Europe. Lancet. 2013;382(9907):1777.CrossRefPubMed

Combined use of inactivated and oral poliovirus vaccines in a large-scale campaign in refugee camps and host communities - Kenya, December 2013. Wkly Epidemiol Rec, 2014;89(12): 127–32

Navarro-Colorado C, Mahamud A, Burton A, Haskew C, Maina GK, Wagacha JB, et al. Measles outbreak response among adolescent and adult Somali refugees displaced by famine in Kenya and Ethiopia, 2011. J Infect Dis. 2014;210(12):1863–70.CrossRefPubMed

Polonsky JA, Ronsse A, Ciglenecki I, Rull M, Porten K. High levels of mortality, malnutrition, and measles, among recently-displaced Somali refugees in Dagahaley camp, Dadaab refugee camp complex, Kenya, 2011. Confl Health. 2013;7(1):1. doi:10.1186/1752-1505-7-1.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

10.

Sharara SL, Kanj SS. War and infectious diseases: challenges of the Syrian civil War. PLoS Pathog. 2014;10(11), e1004438.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

11.

World Health Organization, UN Children's Fund, and UN High Commissioner for Refugees, WHO-UNHCR-UNICEF Joint statement on general principles of vaccination of refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants in the WHO European Region. 2015. Available at:http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/EuropeVaccinationPosition_WHO-UNHCR-UNICEFNov.pdf. Accessed 4/9/2016.

12.

Minetti A, Bopp C, Fermon F, François G, Grais RF, Grout L, et al. Measles outbreak response immunization is context-specific: insight from the recent experience of Médecins Sans Frontières. PLoS Med. 2013;10(11), e1001544.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

13.

Sphere Project, Sphere Handbook: Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response, 2011. 2011. Available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4ed8ae592.html. Accessed on 13 Mar 2016.

14.

World Health Organization, SAGE working group on vaccination in humanitarian emergencies : vaccination in acute humanitarian emergencies: a framework for decision making. 2013. Available at: http://www.who.int/iris/handle/10665/92462. Accessed 13 Mar 2016.

15.

Kamugisha C, Cairns KL, Akim C. An outbreak of measles in Tanzanian refugee camps. J Infect Dis. 2003;187 Suppl 1:S58–62.CrossRefPubMed

16.

Spiegel PB, et al. Health-care needs of people affected by conflict: future trends and changing frameworks. Lancet. 2010;375(9711):341–5.CrossRefPubMed

17.

Mancini S, Coldiron ME, Ronsse A, Ilunga BK, Porten K, Grais RF. Description of a large measles epidemic in Democratic Republic of Congo, 2010–2013. Confl Heal. 2014;8:9.CrossRef

18.

World Health Organization, Planning and Implementing High Quality Supplementary Immunization Activities for Injectable Vaccines using an example of Measles and Rubella Vaccines. A Field Guide. 2016. Available at: http://www.who.int/immunization/diseases/measles/SIA-Field-Guide-revised.pdf. Accessed on 8/3/2016.

19.

World Health Organization, Measles SIAs Planning and Implementation Field Guide. Regional Office for Africa (AFRO). 2010. Available at: http://www.measlesrubellainitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/WHO-AFRO-Measles-Fieldguide-April-2011.pdf. Accessed on 8/3/2016.

20.

World Health Organization, Measles Elimination Field Guide. Regional Office for the Western Pacific (WPRO). 2013. Available at: http://www.wpro.who.int/immunization/documents/measles_elimination_field_guide_2013.pdf. Accessed on 8/3/2016.

21.

World Health Organization, Global vaccine action plan 2011–2020. 2013. Available at: http://www.who.int/immunization/global_vaccine_action_plan/en/. Accessed 16 Mar 2016.

Title: Displaced populations due to humanitarian emergencies and its impact on global eradication and elimination of vaccine-preventable diseases
Authors: Eugene Lam
Michael Diaz
Allen Gidraf Kahindo Maina
Muireann Brennan
Publication date: 01-12-2016
Publisher: BioMed Central
Published in: Conflict and Health / Issue 1/2016
Electronic ISSN: 1752-1505
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13031-016-0094-5

At a glance: The STEP trials

Springer Medicine

Displaced populations due to humanitarian emergencies and its impact on global eradication and elimination of vaccine-preventable diseases

Abstract

At a glance: The STEP trials

Springer Medicine

Abstract

Please log in to get access to this content

Other articles of this Issue 1/2016

Retrospective analysis of reproductive health indicators in the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees post-emergency camps 2007–2013

The mortality in Gaza in July—September 2014: a retrospective chart-review study

Why don’t humanitarian organizations provide safe abortion services?

A quantitative assessment of termination of sexual violence-related pregnancies in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

Erratum to: Evaluation of a surgical service in the chronic phase of a refugee camp: an example from the Thai-Myanmar border

Community based system dynamic as an approach for understanding and acting on messy problems: a case study for global mental health intervention in Afghanistan