Africa vaccine programmes at risk as war disruption and aid cuts hit

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that disruption caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran and US aid cuts is threatening the success of vaccination programmes across Africa, the Associated Press reported on April 15th, leaving millions of children unprotected across the continent.

The impact is already being felt in aid operations across the region, with higher transport costs and disrupted trade routes beginning to affect the delivery of medicines and vaccines, particularly in lower-income countries, according to the British Medical Journal.

The conflict has forced changes to delivery routes, with some emergency medical shipments halted when air, sea and land routes were restricted.

Medical shipments are now being rerouted via longer routes, increasing costs and delivery times, and limiting the volume of supplies that can be delivered.

The impact is already being seen in countries such as Sudan, where shipments of health supplies have been put at risk by instability linked to the w

The warning comes in the WHO’s first comprehensive analysis of immunisation in the region, which found more than 500 million children have been reached through routine vaccination since 2000.

Over the past five decades, vaccines have saved more than 50 million lives in Africa, including nearly 2 million in 2024, the WHO said. Polio was eradicated in 2020, and maternal and neonatal tetanus has been eliminated in most countries.

Malaria vaccines are also being introduced in 25 countries, something WHO regional director for Africa, Mohamed Janabi, described as “a major scientific and public health breakthrough”, as the disease continues to kill more than 400,000 people each year.

The WHO also warned that cuts to US global health funding under President Donald Trump’s “America First” policy could weaken vaccination programmes across the continent and leave millions of children without protection.

Aid agencies say that funding cuts are already disrupting routine and emergency vaccinations in nearly half of the countries, with setbacks comparable to those seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Associated Press, British Medical Journal, Reuters, Maghrbei.org