With immunisation rates hovering under 40 per cent in Somalia, the movement of large numbers of refugees into the camps carries the risk of disease transmission for people in the nearby communities.
VIDEO: UNICEF correspondent Chris Niles reports on efforts to vaccinate children under five and prevent disease outbreaks in and around refugee camps in Dadaab, north-eastern Kenya.
These worries have been reduced with the ongoing immunisation drive supported by UNICEF and led by Kenya’s Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation. Aimed at protecting children in communities around the Dadaab refugee camps, the integrated campaign is reaching children under five with immunisation against measles and polio, as well as vitamin A supplementation and de-worming.
Next week, a similar campaign will be conducted in the Dadaab camps, targeting both children and young adults under 30.
Effect of malnutrition
Health officials recognize the threat of a measles outbreak, which can spread rapidly in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. Hagadera Hospital in Dadaab has already witnessed 42 cases of measles, with one death.
Malnutrition rates at Dadaab have risen from 5.6 per cent last year to 9.7 per cent this year, due to the famine declared in parts of Somalia. A measles outbreak would only worsen the situation, since the disease reduces children’s resistance to other illnesses, and they are more likely to die when they are malnourished.
UNICEF is supporting the immunisation campaign by providing measles and polio vaccines together with vitamin A and de-worming tablets. The agency has also enhanced social and community mobilisation to create awareness about the campaign through various platforms.
In all, the campaign has targeted over 200,000 children under five, including children in southern Somalia where vaccination coverage is at a record low. Communities have turned out in large numbers, eager to have their children immunised.
Read the full report on this immunisation campaign by Daisy Serem from DADAAB on our blog