Africa Vaccine Catch-Up April 2026 Delivers More Than 100M Doz

Friday 24th April 2026

By inAfrika Newsroom

Africa vaccine catch-up April 2026 is part of a wider global update showing that the Big Catch-Up initiative delivered more than 100 million vaccine doses. The update matters now because World Immunization Week starts as countries face funding pressure and routine coverage gaps.

WHO, Gavi and UNICEF said the Big Catch-Up reached an estimated 18.3 million children aged 1 to 5 across 36 countries. The initiative addressed immunisation declines linked largely to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The campaign reached around 12.3 million zero-dose children who had not previously received vaccines. It also reached 15 million children who had never received a measles vaccine and delivered 23 million doses of inactivated polio vaccine. Programme implementation concluded on 31 March 2026.

Here is what the vaccine catch-up means for public health systems. Catch-up campaigns close urgent gaps, but routine immunisation must keep finding newborns, mobile families, displaced communities and children in underserved areas.

Several African countries recorded strong progress. WHO said 12 countries, including Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and Zambia, reported reaching more than 60% of zero-dose children under five who had missed DTP1. Ethiopia reached more than 2.5 million previously zero-dose children, while Nigeria reached 2 million.

Africa vaccine catch-up April 2026: What changes for businesses and households

For households, the operational change is simple: missed vaccination can still be corrected through catch-up services where national programmes provide access. Parents and guardians should check local clinic schedules and child health cards.

For health systems, the lesson is infrastructure. Data, outreach, cold-chain capacity, trained health workers and community trust determine whether children receive vaccines before outbreaks occur.

The broader African vaccine story also includes malaria and HPV. Gavi and WHO said malaria vaccines are now available routinely in 25 African countries, while HPV vaccination has helped avert close to 1 million cervical cancer deaths in 29 African countries as of 2024.

For governments, funding continuity is now the risk. The gains from catch-up campaigns can fade if routine systems remain underfunded or if birth cohorts grow faster than service delivery capacity.