Bogose-Nubea visit for polio vaccination

On Thursday last week, we traveled to Bogose-Konu where we observed the kick-off for the second phase of the polio vaccination campaign. The local health center had been publicizing this day well ahead of time, so there were a lot of mothers and small children showed up.

Animator with microphone and external power supply

One part of the publicity was to have this “animateur” go through the village with his loudspeaker telling them when to come and singing an anti-polio song. He repeated this before the moms and kids. It was great!

Nurse speaking to Moms & kids about vaccinations

The Chef de Secteur spoke to the assembled mothers and small children thanking them for coming and encouraging them to make sure that all their neighbors also come. Also encouraging the mothers were the Bogoze-Nubea Hospital Administrator Jean-Pierre Mbewa-Lewa and the nurse of the Bogose-Konu health center.

Waiting for vaccines

After these opening exhortations the vaccination began. Each child received one drop of the vaccine and some vitamin A. After being vaccinated they marked the little finger of each child with a black magic marker as an easy way to tell that this child had been vaccinated. Marta Klein, short-term physician’s assistant serving at Karawa, accompanied us and was invited to vaccinate a child. Cindy also gave the vaccine and vitamin A.

Cindy giving polio vaccine

Later in the day we continued on to Bogose-Nubea where there is a small 20 bed hospital. Bogose-Nubea is the reference hospital for this health zone. There we asked how many kids were vaccinated during the first campaign at the end of April. In Bogose-Konu, 1,660 children ages 0 to 5 years old out of a census of 1,718 were vaccinated. That is 96% coverage! We learned that those who weren’t vaccinated were off at houses in fields in the forest areas. This time they will send teams out to all of these houses hoping to get closer to 100% coverage.

Here are a few more pictures of the event:

Child getting vaccinated. Open wide!

Mother and child waiting for vaccination