Measles campaign reaches 98 percent of target

A nationwide measles campaign in Tajikistan has ended successfully, with almost 98 percent coverage of the targeted population, according to an official of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF). "The immunisation coverage has been very good. It covered about three million people - half the country's population - mainly children from one to 18 years of age. However, some groups aged between 19 and 29 living in [the northern] Soghd region were also vaccinated," Yukie Mokuo, the head of UNICEF Tajikistan, told IRIN in the capital, Dushanbe, on Wednesday. This was the first mass measles immunisation campaign in the country since the former Soviet republic gained independence in 1991. The Tajik Ministry of Health conducted the campaign in cooperation with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF, and with financial support from the US Center for Disease Control (CDC). The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the Japanese and Canadian governments also supported the project. Measles continues to threaten the survival of infants and children and affects the health of young people and adults in Tajikistan. "The urgent need for a mass immunisation campaign in the country was felt after outbreaks in various pockets [of the country] between January 2002 and June 2003," Mokuo said. During the two-week campaign, vaccinations were administered in schools, health centres and through mobile teams in remote and hard-to-reach areas. "Every effort was made to ensure that no child was left out," Mokuo added. School teachers, provincial officials, religious leaders and parents all played a part in making the campaign a success. The campaign was monitored by a team of 11 international observers from WHO, UNICEF and CDC, who were deployed throughout the country. "We have not received any complaint or negative reaction so far from any side, either from the public or the observers", Mokuo said, adding that this proved the "huge success" of the campaign. Such success will have a direct impact on reducing the number of children dying from preventable diseases, according to UNICEF. The infant mortality rate in Tajikistan remains one of the highest in the world with 89 of every 1,000 children dying at birth, or soon after, according to a UNICEF report released last year in July. Diseases such as malaria, typhoid, tuberculosis and anthrax remain widespread throughout Tajikistan.