WHO, together with Montenegro’s Ministry of Health and Institute of Public Health (IPH) has jointly launched a new initiative – the “Health Caravan” – as part of the American Rescue Plan COVID-19 Response Activity in Montenegro financed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The aim of the “Health Caravan” is to promote the benefits of immunization as a life-saving intervention. The focus will be on COVID-19 vaccination, but the initiative will include other vaccines, against human papillomavirus (HPV) and measles, mumps and rubella (MMR). The United States — through USAID — has allocated $2.7 million in urgent assistance to help Montenegro detect, manage and treat COVID-19 and to strengthen and sustain response capacities to mitigate the pandemic’s public health and socioeconomic impacts.
The Health Caravan involves the setting up of mobile vaccination sites in 4 municipalities (Budva, Nikšić, Bijelo Polje, Ulcinj), where uptake of COVID-19, HPV and MMR vaccines has been especially low. The Caravan will provide these communities with on-the-spot access to vaccines and essential health information.
The Health Caravan will be stationed in these municipalities throughout February and March. To make sure that as many people as possible know about the health services offered at the mobile vaccination sites, the initiative has been promoted through television and radio programmes, schools and other means.
People with underlying health conditions, older people, pregnant women and health-care workers are at particularly high risk of severe COVID-19 disease and will be encouraged to come and get vaccinated. Girls aged 9–14 years are eligible to receive HPV vaccination, which protects against cervical cancer later in life. Children of any age who are scheduled to receive or have missed either dose of MMR will be offered the opportunity to receive it at the mobile vaccination sites.
“The Health Caravan brings together health workers and Red Cross volunteers. Community members will have the opportunity to get vaccinated against COVID-19, HPV and/or MMR, ask questions, and receive routine health check-ups, such as having their blood pressure taken,” said Slobodan Mandić, Director of the Directorate for the Quality of Health Care in the Ministry of Health. “For health workers and health authorities, it’s a great chance to understand people’s health needs and the barriers they may experience in meeting them.”
“COVID-19 remains a threat, and vaccine uptake is still low in Montenegro. With the Health Caravan, we want to reach as many people as possible and make COVID-19 and other essential vaccines more easily accessible for at-risk groups and people living in remote and/or disadvantaged areas. To increase vaccination uptake, we need collective action, partnerships, strong local community engagement and informed citizens,” said Dr Mina Brajović, WHO Representative in Montenegro.
“Activities such as this, carried out in the community, are crucial to drive vaccine uptake and build people’s trust in vaccination now and in the future. Whether it is COVID-19, cervical cancer, or measles, mumps and rubella, vaccines remain the best way to fight these diseases. The best thing you could do to protect yourself and your community is to get vaccinated,” said Dr Borko Bajic, Medical Director at IPH.