#Gabon : The Gabonese government has just launched a national measles vaccination campaign for 5-year-old children and vitamin A supplementation in several provinces of the country.
As the planet hopes for an eventual end to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, global progress once morest measles is threatened by this health crisis. Because to protect populations from the spread of the measles virus, very high vaccination coverage is needed: the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a rate of 95%, but this is an out of reach objective for many many countries on the continent.
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Since the beginning of the year, Gabon has been faced with a resurgence of measles, according to the Minister of Health, Guy Patrick Obiang. “This is an opportunity for us to say that measles is part of WHO’s mandatory vaccines and that every child must be properly vaccinated. We have the opportunity today to vaccinate children who have not been vaccinated,” he said.
The objective of this campaign, which concerns 292,149 children aged 9 to 59 months for measles and 296,397 children aged 6 to 59 months for vitamin A, is to significantly increase collective immunity in children in order to stop the chain transmission and prevent epidemics.
“A vaccinated child is vaccinated for his whole life. And the technical and financial partners that I represent here remain determined to support the Ministry of Health and the government to make this campaign a success”, assures Magaran Monzon Bagayoko, WHO representative in Gabon.
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The campaign started on April 26 and is due to end this Saturday, April 30. She knows a certain enthusiasm on the ground. This means that many parents have understood the importance of having their children vaccinated.
“It’s good to vaccinate children because it prevents diseases. And as it is a contagious disease, it is necessarily worrying, ”says François Elo, a parent who came to have his child vaccinated at the Nzeng Ayong health center in the 6th arrondissement of Libreville.
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It should be noted that outside the health structures, children will be able to receive their doses from the heads of neighborhoods and villages as well as in preschool establishments.
As a reminder, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the French Development Agency (AFD) and the WHO are supporting the Gabonese government in this measles prevention operation.
