By Kemo Cham
Over 1 million children are being targeted for mass vaccination in the first large scale maternal and child health campaign underway in Sierra Leone since the end of the 2014 Ebola outbreak.
Locally dubbed ‘Mami and Pikin Welbodi Week’ [Maternal and Child Health Week (MCHW)], the campaign aims at vaccinating 1.3M children for measles.
The five-day campaign launched in the northern district of Kambia on Friday involve over 10, 000 health workers moving from door-to-door across the country to administer vaccines alongside other life-saving drugs. The government is using the campaign as a platform to provide essential health services to the most vulnerable of the population – children under five, pregnant women and suckling mothers – who are also beneficiaries of the donor-supported partial free healthcare initiative.
Dr. Samuel Kargbo, Director of Health Systems, Planning, Policy and Information, said the campaign is also being used as a vehicle to restore public confidence on the health system.
At the height of the Ebola epidemic last year, people deliberately shun health facilities amidst fears that they could contract the deadly virus there. This followed reports of patient been diagnosed with the viral disease when they believed they exhibited no symptoms of it prior to reporting to a health facility.
According to a report on the effect of this by the UK charity VSO published in June this year, maternal health was severely hit resulting to a 30 percent increase in maternal deaths and 24 percent increase in newborn deaths.
The Health ministry said other routing vaccines for defaulters of up to 23 months of age, Vitamin A capsules, and deworming with Albendazole tablets will be provided by volunteers in the course of the week.
Pregnant women defaulting in antenatal services will also be reached with focused antenatal care services during the campaign.
The MCH Week is being organized by the Ministry of Health and Sanitation in collaboration with UNICEF, WHO, Helen Keller International, the SABIN Institute of Immunization and other NGOs, with funding from GAVI, Canada (CIDA), European Union and Norway.
The campaign would contribute to efforts exerted by the country to deal with the high rate of child and maternal mortality and for the country to reach the Millennium Development Goals, Dr Abubakarr Fofanah, Minister of Health and Sanitation, was quoted saying prior to the launch of the campaign.
Highest maternal death rate
This campaign is being held on the theme: “Healthy Families, Healthy Future.” The MoHS targets at least 95 percent coverage at the end of the exercise.
Even before Ebola, Sierra Leone had one of the worst healthcare systems in the world. But the epidemic brought it to its knees.
And very recent manifestation of this is entailed in the latest World Health Organization (WHO) report on the status of maternal health in the world which ranks the West African country as having the highest number of maternal deaths in the world relative to its population, with 1,360 women dying per 100,000 live births this year, according to the report co-authored by other UN agencies and the World Bank and published early November.
“With the Ebola outbreak declared over, it is now time to scale up effort to end preventable child and maternal deaths and morbidity. We need to harness the energy, all the systems in place and the people who were engaged in the fight against Ebola to now focus on drastically reducing the numbers of children and women dying of preventable causes,” said Dr Anders Nordström, WHO Representative in Sierra Leone, in statement.
Measles campaign
The government planned five rounds of nationwide supplementary immunization activities targeting children 0-5 years and pregnant women for 2015, as part of efforts to improve access to essential maternal and child health services. Four of these campaigns had been successfully executed.
This, the fight round and 14th session of the bi-annual MCHW, marks the second dose of the measles vaccine since its introduction into the routine immunization services for children aged 15-23 months.
According to the WHO/UNICEF estimates, Sierra Leone's routine Immunization coverage for measles for the years 2011-2014 ranged between 75-88%. This coverage falls below the 95% target required to ensure immunity among the population.
Meanwhile, the 2015 post measles Supplementary Immunization coverage survey conducted in August 2015 by the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) with support from WHO, also revealed a national coverage of 88.1% which also falls below the required target for herd immunity. The survey showed that only two out of the country’s 14 districts attained the target while the rest did not. Due to the low coverage the country experienced periodic measles outbreaks in a number of the districts.
WHO recommends introduction of second dose measles vaccine in settings where the coverage with the first dose is higher than 80% and since Sierra Leone has attained >80% coverage of measles first dose, the country introduced the second dose to improve immunity of the targeted children and reduce risks of potential outbreaks.
Additional reporting by WHO
(c) Politico Online 30/11/15
