Two weeks into a mass vaccination campaign that aims to avert the impact of diarrheal diseases in Cox’s Bazar, WHO, UNICEF and the Government of Bangladesh assessed the progresses made: 310,170 people vaccinated among Rohingya and host communities as of December 21. Every day, the campaign is being monitored and supervised by Government, WHO, UNICEF and other immunization partners involved in the mass vaccination campaign.
“This is the first round of the oral cholera vaccination campaign and we need to assess the progresses made to ensure successful implementation and reaching target population as planned”, says Dr. Khalid El Tahir, WHO Emergency Sub-Office Incident Manager. “Cholera is a vaccine-preventable disease and we are confident to be ensuring protection to every child and adult and, ultimately, public health”.
WHO surveillance and immunization medical officers (SIMOs) are contributing to assess the immunization coverage of the oral cholera vaccination campaign in Cox’s Bazar.
“My role is to monitor the campaign’s implementation by undertaking random visits to houses in my assigned area and asking families if the vaccination teams came to see them. I need to upload that information in the system, we call it Rapid Convenient Monitoring, and if any member of family missed the vaccine I need to ensure that the vaccination teams come back”, says WHO SIMO Dr. Musfiq Rahman.
WHO Bangladesh/ Tatiana Almeida
The campaign was made possible thanks to the 1.2 million vaccines that arrived in Cox’s Bazar with the support of GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, earlier this month. Present in Cox’s Bazar, GAVI’s Deputy CEO, Ms. Anuradha Gupta participated in campaign’s launching.
“Today I was very happy to see another round of cholera vaccination being launched because there are kids who are missing constantly some of these vaccines and it is important that they are providing the protection that is possible today”, said Ms. Anuradha Gupta at the launch ceremony.
In order to turn this campaign into a public health success intervention in Cox’s Bazar, WHO and health sector partners expect to vaccinate 635,000 people against cholera. Hundreds of dedicated vaccinators, volunteers, helpers, supervisors and coordinators are working tirelessly to implement the campaign by visiting house by house.
“I have been fighting vaccine-preventable diseases for over a decade. In this campaign, I am responsible for supervising 5 teams of 5 people. Today, we vaccinated 1760 people from the host community. It’s remarkable how much can be done in only one day with the support of our dedicated community mobilizers”, says Sufia Khan, Team Lead at the host community in Teknaf.
Entering the third year since the beginning of the emergency response in Cox’s Bazar, the relationship of trust between humanitarian staff and the populations in Cox’s Bazar allow organizations to better address emerging needs in a challenging environment.
“I was expecting the community health worker’s visit today”, says Jubeda a 30-year-old and mother of 4 children. “They are always welcome at my home, they have encouraged me to vaccinate my children. Thanks to them, I know that vaccines can protect my family against vaccine preventable diseases”.
WHO Bangladesh/ Tatiana Almeida
One by one, vaccines are protecting Rohingya refugees and host communities in Cox’s Bazar. Over 635,000 people are expected to be vaccinated until December 31. The second round of oral cholera vaccine is planned for early 2020.