Health care workers from Doctors Without Borders (MSF) recently launched a vaccine campaign in the Central African Republic (CAR) on a scale that has never been seen before.
The number of vaccinated children living in the CAR has continued to decline since 2013. In light of this decline, this campaign targets children who are less than 5 years old. The goal is to protect one-quarter, or 220,000, of the CAR’s children from nine of the major childhood killer diseases.
Additionally, MSF seeks to improve the vaccine services based at the health facilities where it operates in CAR. Health care workers will begin to take further preventive measures, such as distributing bed nets, vitamin A, and anti-parasite treatments. There will also be malnutrition screening available to the public.
“This preventive vaccination campaign is the biggest ever undertaken by MSF in CAR and one of the first aimed at protecting under 5-year-olds against so many diseases,” Dr. Pauline Lechevalier, MSF’s vaccination adviser, said. “Given the situation in CAR right now, the risk of epidemics and therefore deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases is extremely high. It is vital that as many children as possible be provided protection against these illnesses.”
The campaign is scheduled to end this year.
