Reaching every child under five with the Oral Poliovirus and Measles Rubella vaccines

All Lao children under five year of age received the Oral Poliovirus (OPV) and Measles Rubella (MR) vaccines in the latest nationwide vaccination campaign conducted in January 2017. Monitoring and supervision and Rapid Convenience Monitoring (RCM) took place from 15-25 January in all provinces to check for “missed” children.

Loudspeakers, posters, street and standee banners were used for the latest OPV and MR campaign

Many villagers were informed by their village heads and village health volunteers on the latest vaccination campaign. The village head used the village loudspeakers and village health volunteers went around the village to inform families of the dates when vaccination will take place.

Vaccination posts were set up in villages, at temples, village head offices and community gathering area to make it accessible for the parents with young children. They can also bring their children to the health centres, district and provincial hospitals for vaccination.

Dr Siak (left) a Hmong doctor with the village health volunteer (right) at an outreach vaccination post that was set up inside a temple

Health staff set up another outreach vaccination post in the village head office

A grandmother and her three young grandchildren at a vaccination post in their village community gathering area

Community support from village heads, village health volunteers, Lao Women Union and Lao Front for National Construction, provincial and district Mother and Child committees and health workers actively encouraged parents and grandparents to bring their children to the vaccination post. This has improved coverage of the vaccination campaign and fewer “missed” children were found.

A Hmong father holding his child for the measles rubella vaccine

Dr Viengmany, Provincial Director of Maternal and Child Health (MCH), Vientiane Province (middle) with Dr Achyut, WHO (right) checking the vaccination book of a baby in the village. MCH and other units in the province are providing support to the vaccination campaign

Dr Viengmany and Dr Achyut checking the EPI and MCH information board inside the health centre as part of the monitoring and evaluation activities

Rapid Convenience Monitoring (RCM) was conducted house-to-house to check for missed children, the child’s vaccination record book was also reviewed to check for routine vaccination

A Hmong boy under five showing us his hand where the last two fingers were marked after he received OPV and MR vaccines

RCM in a toddler nursery – children showing us their finger marks

Microplanning at village, district and provincial levels has ensured better efficiency at villages covered by the health centres and village heads and village health volunteers were informed ahead of the campaign. The involvement of village heads was critical in providing messages to communities and ensuring the success of the campaign.

The records of children in the community were updated regularly after each round of OPV campaign and this improves microplanning and ensured better vaccine coverage. In the past year, many lessons learnt have resulted in training for health workers to improve their skills and engaging the community. They are better able to advocate to ethnic groups and improve vaccine coverage.

As this is the tenth round of OPV, the regular monitoring and evaluation and RCM by the MOH and partners like WHO and UNICEF has helped improve coverage of the campaign. Health workers are better organized and they have updated records of children in their community to ensure that they will be able to reach all children under five with this OPV and MR campaign.