Taking time to immunize children even in an emergency
Christyne Bahringer, UNICEF
© UNICEF/CAM359/Bahringer
Trained nurses and community health workers providing immunization and vaccines to young children and women.
KOUSSERI, Cameroon (June 10, 2008) — For thousands of families taking refuge from the violence in southern Chad, time stands still.
"We are waiting here, with nothing to do but see when we can go home. Wait for news that it is safe to return to our homes, if we still have homes there," says Mohammed, referring to his wife and four young children resting in the shade of their tent in Maltam Camp, a refugee settlement in northern Cameroon. But while time passes too slowly for Mohammed and his family, time seems to be passing far too rapidly for the organizations and workers coordinating relief efforts in the camp, located 20 miles southeast of Kousseri, a small town in Cameroon near the border with Chad.
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), about 8,100 people—including over 2,800 infants and children—are currently residing in Maltam Camp, having fled across the border via a small bridge that links Chad to its southern neighbor.
"It is a dangerous situation, despite the fact that the fighting seems to have stopped in N'djamena," says James Watts Munang, UNICEF Team Leader for Emergency Operations in Kousseri. "We must work fast day and night to prevent the spread of disease among children and women, which means coordinating vaccination campaigns against communicable diseases like measles, meningitis and polio, as well as ensuring that attention is given to water and sanitation matters so cholera and diarrhea do not become issues," Munang explains.
Prevention of epidemics is a standard response in almost any emergency; but in an emergency such as this, in which large populations are crossing borders, it is vital to not only protect the children and families living in the refugee camps, but also those from the host community—in this case, Cameroonian children and families.
© UNICEF/CAM208/Bahringer
Growth monitoring for infants and young children living in Maltam Camp begins at registration and reoccurs monthly.
Thus far, it appears that UNICEF and its partners are winning the race against time. The first round of a mass immunization campaign reached 37, 151 children with vaccines against measles and 43,329 children received polio vaccines. Infants and children aged six months to five years also received vitamin A supplements, which provide an extra boost to their young immune systems.
A campaign against meningitis targeting all children and adults in the camp (excluding pregnant women and children below two years of age) recently concluded. Plans are now underway to provide maternal and neonatal tetanus vaccinations for pregnant women and girls of child-bearing age residing in the camp.
Out of the total number of children vaccinated against measles and polio, more than 30,000 are Cameroonian, living in Kousseri. From UNICEF's perspective, responding to an emergency should not mean compromising regular programming, especially when an emergency occurs in area where work remains to be done for infants and children and an outbreak of disease could be devastating. According to Stephen Wazeh, UNICEF Health Officer, only 74 percent of children in Kousseri are fully immunized, a far cry from the goal of universal immunization. Thus, children and adults in Kousseri will also receive meningitis vaccinations in the coming weeks.
Back in Maltam, though, Mohammed says he and his wife are at least happy that their children are now safe from three very deadly diseases. "We can at least know now that they will not get sick and that while we are here, we do not have to fear for their health and safety as much."
