Measles campaign gathers pace on both sides of frontline

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday its campaign to vaccinate children against measles in both the government and rebel-controlled areas of Cote d'Ivoire had picked up momentum, but more funds were needed to complete the job. A UNICEF official closely involved in the campaign said nearly 644,000 children had been innoculated against measles since April. Nearly half the innoculations had been carried out since the begining of November, he added. However, the official stressed that relief agencies would have to raise a further US $7 million to be able to vaccinate all the six to seven million children under the age of 15 in the divided West African country. The measles campaign has already vaccinated nearly 30,000 children in and around the rebel capital Bouake in central Cote d'Ivoire, but the official, who asked not to be named, said UNICEF wanted to do more in other parts of the rebel-held north. "We would like to move up north to Korhogo and Ferkessedougou and to the west in Man, Toulepleu, Guiglo and the environs," he told IRIN. "But we must have the vaccine, the vitamin A capsules, liquid cash to pay those who administer the vaccines and the supplements, we must have money for fuel - in all we must have money to cover the operation costs," he said. "The age covered in the campaign [six months to 14 years] is 42 percent of the total population and to vaccinate each child costs one dollar," he added. Cote d'Ivoire population is 16 million. The UNICEF official said the vaccination campaign had so far covered 19 of the 65 districts in Cote d'Ivoire. Besides administering the measles vaccination, the health teams were also administering vitamin A supplements to children aged between six months and four years old, he noted. So far, more than 242,000 babies and toddlers have received this supplement, which is designed to protect young children with vitamin A deficiency against blindness. The UNICEF official said the vaccination campaign was currently being extended to reach over 307,000 more children in remote parts of the rebel-held north of Cote d'Ivoire with funds from the humanitarian Affairs Office of the European Union (ECHO). The cash was being used to take measles vaccination to the northwestern districts of Odienne, Boundiali and Tengrela and to Bouna in the northeast, he added. The measles campaign is being carried out jointly by UNICEF, the Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization (WHO), International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Hellen Keller International and Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF).