Welcome message from Professor Gregory Hussey, Director of the Vaccines for Africa Initiative 

 

 

What is the Vaccines for Africa Initiative?
The Vaccines for Africa Initiative (VACFA) was founded in 2008 by Professor Gregory Hussey, the Director of the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine at the University of Cape Town. It is a partnership of concerned individuals and organisations who have come together with the expressed purpose of increasing awareness of and promoting uptake of vaccines on the African continent.  VACFA will provide a forum for the exchange of accurate, up-to-date and fully researched information on vaccines and immunisation practices relevant to Africa for health professionals, policymakers, programme managers, parents, and the general public.

 

What is the vision of VACFA?
An Africa free of vaccine-preventable diseases

 

What is the mission of VACFA?
To increase awareness of the benefits of vaccines and to promote uptake of established and new vaccines in Africa.

 

What are the objectives of VACFA?

1. To work collaboratively with the public, scientific community, and health care institutions to promote the use of vaccines and immunisation services to decrease morbidity and mortality from vaccine-preventable diseases in Africa
2. To provide information on policy and guidelines for use of vaccines in Africa.
3. To promote strategies to increase immunisation coverage in Africa.
4. To provide up-to date, reliable and evidence-based information and educational resources about vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases to the public and scientific community in Africa.
5. To advocate for the inclusion of new vaccines into national immunisation programmes in order to decrease the burden of vaccine-preventable disease in Africa.
6. To encourage research in vaccine and vaccine preventable diseases in Africa

What is the purpose of this site?
The website is designed to be an interactive forum to encourage debate and information exchange between the public, scientific community, and health care professionals.

 

The website aims to be a strategic resource to share information about current vaccines, vaccine research, and vaccine initiatives. The website will be accessible to both the public and scientific community and be a portal for information about vaccines and vaccine research and development.

 

How can the site be of use?
The website has general information about vaccine-preventable diseases and their respective vaccines and vaccine advocacy. There are also a wide range of resources and links to useful websites and information as well as access to key papers on vaccines and vaccine initiatives.

 

Whilst the field of vaccines and vaccine research is vast and ever changing, the website aims to demystify and enlighten the public about the exciting and groundbreaking research being done into vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases relevant to Africa.

 

VACFA Advisory Board
The purpose of the VACFA Advisory Board is to provide strategic advice and support to the VACFA web-site initiative and related activities.

 

The Board comprises 12 members who, serve in their personal capacity and, represent a broad range of disciplines encompassing various aspects of immunisation and vaccines relevant to Africa. The members are acknowledged experts in their field and are selected based on their expertise to represent the various geographical blocks in Africa.

 

They ensure that the activities of VACFA address the immunisation information, educational, and research needs of health professionals, general public, policy makers, and researchers in Africa.

 

The VACFA Advisory Board consists of:

Prof Barry Schoub

National Institute for Communicable Diseases, Johannesburg, South Africa

 

Prof Chantal Akoua-Koffi

Institut Pasteur de Côte d'lvoire, Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire

 

Dr Marie Kobela

Expanded Programme on Immunisation, Yaoundé, Cameroon

 

Dr Charles Mwansambo

Kamuzu Central Hospital, Lilongwe, Malawi

 

Dr Issa Makumbi

Expanded Programme on Immunisation, Kampala, Uganda

 

Prof Telahun Teka Wolde

Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia

 

Prof Prakash Jeena

University of KwaZulu Natal, Durban, South Africa

 

Prof Richard Adegbola

Medical Research Council, Banjul, The Gambia

 

Prof Papa Salif Sow

Dakar University Teaching Hospital, Senegal.

 

Prof George Armah

Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, Ghana

 

Dr Philippa Musoke

Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda

 

Prof Shabir Madhi

University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

 

VACFA staff
The VACFA administrative team is based at the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, within the University of Cape Town (UCT) in Cape Town, South Africa.

 

The team comprises the following:

Prof Gregory Hussey

    Professor & Head of Paediatric Infectious Diseases, School of Child and Adolescent Health, UCT

    Director, Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, UCT 

    Director, South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative, UCT 

 

Charles Shey Wiysonge

   Medical Epidemiologist

   Vaccinology Programme Manager, Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, UCT

  

Zainab Waggie

   Paediatrician

   Senior Clinical Research Officer, Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, UCT

 

Linda Rhoda

   Communications Manager, South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative, UCT

 

Suresh Maslamoney

   Information Technology Manager, South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative, UCT

Maintenance of website content

Articles for this website are written by either Dr Charles Shey Wiysonge or Dr Zainab Waggie and reviewed, in the first instance, by Prof Gregory Hussey. The revised article is then reviewed by an external expert or a member of the VACFA Advisory Board, depending on the subject of the article and the content expertise of the external expert or Board member.

 

We add news relevant to Africa on the website as it becomes available, and do timely updates of individual articles on the site as needed.

 

Potential conflict of interest

Prof Gregory Hussey has received unrestricted grants from GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals and Sanofi Pasteur for vaccine advocacy and the annual African Vaccinology Course.    

 

Strict operational and scientific independence is essential for VACFA staff and VACFA Advisory Board members. For VACFA Advisory Board meetings, the members (will) only get travel and subsistence reimbursed according to University of Cape Town rules, with no incentive or remuneration provided.

 

Donors
We have approached several donors for funding and their names will be posted on confirmation.

Current funding comes from the University of Cape Town  

 

Accreditation of the site
The World Health Organisation has reviewed the VACFA website and found it to adhere to the credibility and content criteria of good information practices. More information on the Vaccine Safety Net criteria is available from from the WHO website.     

 

Acknowledgements
We acknowledge various organisations whose material we have used in the development of this site, including the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), GAVI Alliance, Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), The Measles Initiative, and PneumoADIP. Any omissions are unintentional and it would be appreciated if you would draw our attention to this.

 

We acknowledge the photographers who have given us permission to use the photos on this site: Peter Williams, Geneva; Pierre Virot, WHO; and Harold Ruiz, PAHO/WHO.

 

Contact details

Your feedback is important for us to improve the VACFA website. Please send any comments or suggestions to:

 

Dr Charles Shey Wiysonge

Vaccinology Programme Manager

Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine

University of Cape Town
Anzio Road, Observatory
Cape Town  

7925

South Africa

Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Tel:  +27 - 21 406 6697
Fax: +27 - 21 406 6081