Relief agency launches vaccination programme in remote areas

A British medical relief agency, Merlin, has launched a major vaccination programme in two remote areas of Maniema Province, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The effort is targeting 22,000 children and 6,000 pregnant women, the organisation reported on Tuesday. "Vaccination coverage is as low as 20 percent in some of these targeted areas, leaving communities vulnerable to measles, polio, tuberculosis and other preventable diseases," Merlin said. It added that some communities had not received any immunisation for 10 years as, prior to 2003, the two health zones were inaccessible due to civil war. This left an estimated 3.3 million dead countrywide, mostly due to hunger and disease, it said. Working with the Ministry of Health and funded by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), Merlin said it was aiming at vaccinating the children and pregnant women in the Punia and Ferekeni health zones in Maniema over the next two months. It said due to low vaccination coverage, lack of health protection was one of the major factors contributing to the country's poor health indicators, which are among the worst in the world. In 2003, Merlin said infant and under-five mortality rates were at 129 per 1,000 and 205 per 1,000 live births, respectively. Merlin said it would be providing vaccinations for polio, measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, tuberculosis and yellow fever for children less than five years of age, while women of child-bearing age would be immunised against tetanus. "Our aim is to raise vaccination coverage in Punia and Ferekeni to around 80 percent," Merlin said. Merlin's medical coordinator in the DRC, Dr Dick Hooper, was quoted as saying: "The only way to reduce the vulnerability of those children who have missed immunisations due to years of war is to run accelerated programmes. "Routine programmes are already stretched to capacity and, although they do protect individuals, unless they are backed up by accelerated programmes, they just cannot prevent epidemics sweeping through communities."