An ongoing MR campaign brings Bangladesh closer to the bold objective of elimination measles and rubella from the country. Over 15 000 health workers and volunteers across the country embarked on the mission to leave no child behind, to reach the unreached areas, to ensure that every child aged between 9 months and 10 years receive the essential MR dose.
WHO, together with UNICEF, GAVI The Vaccine Alliance, and health partners is supporting the Government of Bangladesh to successfully roll out the campaign aiming to vaccinate 34 million children and to ensure that immunization coverage is up to the mark.
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Mother with two children at vaccination point. Photo WHO Bangladesh/ Catalin Bercaru
“WHO works closely with the Government to constantly review and adapt the microplanning to reach a vaccination coverage of at least 95%. The success of the campaign lies in ensuring that no matter how far or how hard it is to reach, vaccines will get everywhere, to every child of the country from the targeted age group”, says Dr. Rajendra Bohara Immunization and Vaccine Development Team Leader, WHO Bangladesh.
For achieving this ambitious goal, WHO supports the Government to monitor vaccination activities in low immunization coverage areas in rural and urban settings, hard-to-reach communities and in areas reporting Measles incidence.
WHO field network of 64 Surveillance and Immunization Officers (SIMOs) and 8 Division Coordinators across the country are working in support of the Government’s vaccination programs, including microplanning, training, and monitoring the MR campaign related activities including VPD and AEFI surveillance. Their role is to continuously assess the implementation of the campaign, identifying bottlenecks and gaps and timely sharing feedback with public health authorities for corrective action.
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WHO staff together with Government health officials are on the way for monitoring vaccination in remote and hard to reach areas based on microplans. Photo by WHO Bangladesh/ Catalin Bercaru
A particular area of concern is the slums, traditionally crowded settings with limiting socio-economic conditions. “Measles and Rubella virus survives in areas where immunization coverage is low. It is in these areas where diseases like Measles finds its ways to enter the community and spread”, adds Dr. Bohara.
In Sylhet division, similarly to many other places in the country, difficult access to various settings represents a constant challenge to vaccination coverage rates.
“Difficult access not only hampers the capacities to deliver the vaccines but also to mobilize communities in advance, to inform them about the vaccination campaign, the dates and the places where the parents can take their children for immunization”, says Dr. Muhammad Lutfor, WHO Divisional Coordinator for Sylhet.
For ensuring that ground realities are in line with micro planning, WHO SIMOs are conducting daily monitoring visits to evaluate the implementation status and immunization procedures, provide additional advices to health workers. Besides on-job training, such visits also provide opportunities to motivate the vaccination teams and supervisors that are working tirelessly in the field. Additionally, the visits allow rapid assessments to identify children that missed the vaccination.
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Children showing marked fingers as proof of vaccination. Photo WHO Bangladesh/ Catalin Bercaru
“After vaccination, children are getting the little finger marked with a special ink that lasts for several days. This helps us to easily identify in communities the children that have missed the immunization and instruct the families to go to the vaccination points”, Says Dr. Lutfor.
In pursuing that no one is left behind and that the vaccine reaches every single eligible beneficiary, vaccination sessions are also scheduled for children living with parents in tea gardens, garment factories, prisons and brick fields.
An important aspect that SIMOs are monitoring is the observance of infection protection measures, namely physical distance and mask wearing of people in the waiting area and the hand hygiene of vaccinators. In this regard, vaccination teams have been instructed to closely maintain adherence to protection measures in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
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Physical distancing measures at vaccination point. Photo WHO Bangladesh/ Catalin Bercaru
“Since the start of COVID-19 pandemic, WHO trained over 25,000 vaccinators at district and upazila levels in Infection Prevention and Control Measures and has constantly supported the strengthening of vaccination safety against the spread of the virus”, said Dr. Balwinder Singh, WHO, medical officer IVD Bangladesh.
WHO remains committed to ensuring continuous support to Government in the fight against vaccine-preventable diseases and to achieve the goal of MR elimination from the country.