MSF launches measles immunisation drive in the north

Spanish NGO Medicos Sin Fronteras (MSF-Spain) began on Tuesday a massive anti-measles vaccination drive in the northern Central African Republic (CAR) town of Nana Bakassa and surrounding villages, MSF representative Joan Ignasi Soler told IRIN on Wednesday. Nana Bakassa, 370 km north of the capital, Bangui, and villages 30 km around it have a population of 12,000, of whom 5,500 are children aged between six months and 15 years and who are due for vaccination during the three-day campaign. The MSF medical coordinator, Dr Peguy Massamba, who launched the immunisation drive, told IRIN the NGO sent a mission to the town between 13 and 23 May after local health authorities reported several cases of measles in the area. The MSF team confirmed that there was a measles epidemic, he said. "Forty people were reported to have died of measles, but it is most likely that a bigger number of people died," Massamba said. He added that the displacement of the population during the October 2002-March 2003 fighting between government and rebels troops, as well as low vaccination rates before the war, had contributed to the outbreak of measles epidemics. He said that health facilities in and around Nana Bakassa have not been in operation since October 2002, and that only a few nurses were at hospitals and clinics that mostly lacked drugs. The fighting, which ended on 15 March 2003 when former army chief of staff Francois Bozize overthrew President Ange-Felix Patasse, hindered a nationwide immunisation campaign in late 2002 and routine vaccinations in local health facilities. With the help of the UN Children's Fund, select immunisation campaigns were organised in areas that were accessible. "Parents told us that many children had never been immunised," Massamba said. He said although this time around MSF would attempt to reach all children in the targeted areas, the current heavy rains could hinder the effort. He said the campaign would be facilitated by the fact that "quite all the population have returned home". Late in May, MSF closed all its emergency medical activities in the war-ravaged north and was replaced by an Italian NGO, Cooperazione Internazionale (COOPI). MSF has been considering implementing new projects, including fighting the sleeping sickness in the far east and containing epidemics countrywide. "We have the necessary logistics and means to face epidemics wherever they may break out in the country," Massamba said. After Bozize's coup and increased efforts to restore security in the north since early July, most economic, social and medical activities have resumed, but humanitarian workers have complained of the absence of qualified medical personnel in most local health facilities. "The government has made huge efforts to restore security and pay salaries, there is no other reason for medical workers not to report to their duty stations," Soler said.