Skip to Content

Vaccination

South Sudan: A mother's struggle to vaccinate her baby

15 May 2012
South Sudan Mother of twins vaccines
To fully vaccinate a child with the basic package of immunisations – called the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) – infants must be brought to a health facility at least five times within their first year of life. Sitting in the waiting room of MSF's Aweil Civil Hospital (ACH) in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State, South Sudan, Aguil Bol Mallien explains the challenges she faces when bringing her twin babies to be vaccinated. Aguil Bol Mallien with her twins. Photo: MSF “Two and half months ago, I delivered my twins here at ACH. This was the first time I've delivered in hospital as my other four children, aged between four and ten, were all delivered at home. I live...
Read more

New Global Vaccine Strategy Glosses Over Basic Immunisation Gaps

15 May 2012
Afghanistan. Vaccination against Diphtheria, Tetanus and Polio
Afghanistan: A young child receives a vaccination against Diphtheria, Tetanus and Polio
  A new, ten-year, multi-billion dollar action plan for global vaccination may fail to deliver if it does not directly address the weaknesses in routine immunisation programmes. Nineteen million children are being missed each year and this challenge must be explicitly addressed, the medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said today.   Afghanistan: A young child receives a vaccination against Diphtheria, Tetanus and Polio. Photo: Ton Kuene   A ‘Global Vaccines Action Plan’ has been designed to implement the ‘Decade of Vaccines’ project and will be considered by Health Ministers gathering next week in...
Read more

The Right Shot: Extending the reach of affordable and adapted vaccines

15 May 2012
MSF Report: The Right Shot
The Right Shot: Extending the reach of affordable and adapted vaccines
      Lack of information on both the price and the different product characteristics of vaccines has been limiting countries’ ability to operate affordable and effective immunisation programmes. This publication seeks to remedy some of the existing knowledge gaps by raising awareness on existing price differentials, exploring what factors drive fluctuations in vaccine prices, and discussing where development of better adapted vaccines could reduce barriers to immunisation and increase coverage levels of traditional and newer vaccines. This publication serves as a resource for immunisation stakeholders, such as donors, implementing partners, and developing countries,...
Read more

South Sudan facing multiple emergencies

27 April 2012
  MSF supporting health structures near the border with Sudan and assisting displaced people   Tensions and hostilities continue unabated between South Sudan and its northern neighbour Sudan, and MSF is scaling up its emergency response by treating people injured in the latest violence, giving material and staff support to local clinics and hospitals, and providing relief to people displaced by the fighting.   MSF currently provides life-saving surgery in Aweil and Agok for patients wounded in the recent violence. The organisation also reinforced its surgical response capacity in case of a general degradation of the situation.   MSF has also donated medicines and medical supplies to local hospitals in Abiemnom and...
Read more

MSF using innovative oral vaccine during cholera outbreak in Guinea

24 April 2012
MSF: oral vaccine during cholera outbreak in Guinea
MSF using innovative oral vaccine during cholera outbreak in Guinea
More than 150,000 people are currently being vaccinated near Conakry, the capital of Guinea, where a cholera epidemic has broken out. Photo: Christelle Ntsama   For the first time, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is responding to a cholera outbreak in Africa by carrying out a mass vaccination campaign. In Guinea, the emergency medical organisation is using an oral vaccine to limit the spread of the disease. The first two phases of this campaign began on April 18 in the Boffa region, near Conakry. "The epidemic in Guinea was declared in February and Boffa Prefecture is currently where we are seeing the largest active outbreak," said Charles Gaudry...
Read more

Chad: MSF vaccinating thousands against meningitis

01 March 2012
Chad: MSF's mobile clinic in Beinamar
MSF's mobile clinic in Beinamar, Chad
Dutch nurse Marja Scholten recently coordinated a vaccination campaign in the African country of Chad. Together with a team of 300 people she protected nearly 110,000 people against meningitis.    I was happy to return to Chad, to the Mandelia district, where I had just been a month earlier, helping to prevent a cholera epidemic.  This time we would be carrying out a prevention campaign against Meningitis A.     April 2011. MSF's mobile clinic in Beinamar, Chad. Photo: Elisabeth Griot   New meningitis vaccine Meningitis, which causes inflammation of the membranes surrounding the brain, is responsible for many deaths every year. The disease...
Read more

Special Report: Access to Essential Medicines - Ten Stories That Mattered in 2011

05 December 2011
Cryptococcal meningitis
The womens ward at the Homa Bay District Hospital in Western Kenya.
  Download the report Access to Essential Medicines: Ten Stories That Mattered in 2011   2011 marks the ten-year anniversary of two events that have helped shape people’s ability in developing countries to access quality, affordable medical care. First, the signing of the Doha Declaration, in which governments affirmed the need to prioritize health over trade: access to affordable medicines over intellectual property rights. But a decade later, the struggle to access medicines in developing countries continues. One key fault line is India, which is home of the most quality affordable medicines used in the developing world, but which faces...
Read more

MSF Releases 'Ten Stories That Mattered in Access to Medicines in 2011'

21 December 2011
A list of "Ten Stories that Mattered in Access to Medicines in 2011"  was released today by the international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF). The list looks at developments in 2011 that had an impact—whether positive or negative—on people’s ability to access needed drugs, diagnostics, and vaccines in developing countries. Download the report Access to Essential Medicines: Ten Stories That Mattered in 2011   For the diseases our medical teams encounter every day in places where we work, 2011 was a year of both critical progress and dangerous backsliding,” said Dr. Tido von Schoen-...
Read more

Access to Essential Medicines: Ten Stories That Mattered in 2011

20 December 2011
Ten Stories That Mattered in 2011
Access to Essential Medicines: Ten Stories That Mattered in 2011
Through its Access Campaign, MSF has been closely following the developments in the world of access to medicines, vaccines, and diagnostics.
Read more

Vaccination campaign suspended due to fighting in Daynille

24 October 2011
Somalia, measles, vaccination
Since July 2011, nearly 200,000 newly displaced people have arrived in Mogadishu from drought-affected central regions of Somalia. MSF has opened 4 ITFCs in the capital city to treat malnourished children and distribute ready-to-use therapeutic food to the IDPs. Measles vaccination is also undertaken to respond current epidemic outbreak.
After heavy fighting erupted on October 20 in Daynille, on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) was forced to suspend its measles vaccination campaign in the area. The campaign had been scheduled to last three weeks and to reach 35,000 children. Measles is currently wreaking havoc in Somalia. 60,000 have been already vaccinated against measles over the last 2 months. "Combined with malnutrition, measles is now the main killer of children in Somalia,” says Duncan McLean, head of MSF programs in Somalia. “Only vaccination can stop the spread of the epidemic.” During the first five days of the campaign, 4,831 children, ages six months to 15 years were...
Read more
Syndicate content


by Dr. Radut.