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Deputy Health Minister Nazira Abdula thanks the GAVI Alliance for 12 years of vaccine support.
Maputo, Mozambique, 14 March 2012 – As GAVI CEO Seth Berkley completed a three-day visit to Mozambique on Wednesday, Deputy Health Minister Nazira Abdula thanked the GAVI Alliance for 12 years of vaccine support.
“Thank you GAVI, please continue to support us,” said the Deputy Minister, at a meeting that completed Dr. Berkley’s first visit to a sub-Saharan Africa country since starting at GAVI last year.
First country
Since Mozambique became one of the first countries to ever receive GAVI support (for tetravalent in 2001), the country has also received Alliance support for the rollout of pentavalent (2009) and, more recently, the introduction of pneumococcal vaccine (October 2011).
The Deputy Minister announced that she planned to invite senior Mozambican politicians to celebrate the first rollout of pneumococcal vaccine, projected to take place in the coming two years.
Thank you GAVI, please continue to support us. Nazira Abdula, Deputy Health Minister |
Magic of vaccines
During his trip, Dr. Berkley delivered the fourth annual Manhiça Foundation lecture at Maputo University’s Faculty of Medicine. Entitled the “Magic of Vaccines”, the address underlined the potential of a new generation of life-saving vaccines for African development.
Dr. Berkley also observed immunisation sessions firsthand in Manhiça District and visited the Manhiça Foundation’s pioneering research centre, one of 11 centres in seven African countries currently carrying out phase III trials of a potential malaria vaccine.