Measles vaccination in Guinea: more than 2 million children targeted.

Be careful, the measles has returned! It is a childhood illness that health authorities have been monitoring like milk on fire for several months. It intensified to the point that thousands of cases were reported by the Ministry of Health. Children have even died from it.

A galloping epidemic, this epidemic outbreak led the Ministry of Health to launch routine vaccination from May 9 to 14 for toddlers. According to Guineenews.org, this vaccination campaign aims to achieve 2,519,711 children aged 6 to 59 months across the country.

Friday May 13, 2022, 10 a.m. In front of the Hamdallaye Mosque youth center, in the town of Ratoma which is home to one of the measles vaccination sites, several mothers are heading there to vaccinate their children. It is into this peaceful atmosphere that Oumou Conda Diallo arrives, fair-skinned, wearing a green scarf, and her three children. Just for a short moment, the vaccinator asks her to hold the arm of her youngest daughter, on which she administers the injection, who sheds tears.

The importance of the vaccine

Informed of the vaccination campaign by an SMS from Orange Guinea, this young mother left her office and went to pick up her children aged 6 to 2 from school to have them vaccinated. She is aware of the usefulness of the vaccine and sends a message to parents who are still reluctant to vaccinate their children. “Vaccines are very important. I have always vaccinated my children. As a mother, I feel comfortable and I tell myself that it's good to follow my children because they are the basis. Anything that goes against their health, I worry about it. I always tell my neighbors who are not literate in the neighborhood, to follow the children's vaccination, because it is very good; to have a healthy child, by the way, it is the best thing for a parent to vaccinate their children and take care of them,” she explained.

More than a hundred children vaccinated per day

Measles is a highly contagious and sometimes fatal disease that spreads like wildfire. And also, it would be nothing more than a mild childhood illness, which simply causes a slight rash, a runny nose and a few pimples, accompanied by a high fever and great fatigue. Since vaccination operations began, an average of around a hundred children have been vaccinated on a daily basis.. “We started with Hamdallaye, today we vaccinated 107 children. On the second day, we vaccinated 150 and on the third day, 170. And today, the children are coming little by little” said Fatoumata Conté, PEV agent of the Ratoma CMC and also head of the Hamdallaye Mosque vaccination site.

Prevention against this disease is essential

Met at the Kobaya health center, Hawa Camara, holds her child Namandian, calm in her arms. Several children are infected with measles, this young lady intends to prevent her children from this disease. Although children in his neighborhood have already fallen ill. “I learned from my mother-in-law that there is a vaccination campaign against measles. Straight away, I ran to come and get my three children vaccinated. Currently, I already have 2 neighbors who have sick children. And frankly, I said to myself, we need to avoid that,” she says.

Unvaccinated children are still entitled to this vaccine

There is still time to give unvaccinated children a second chance to take the vaccine. Even so, this current vaccination campaign ended on Saturday May 14. Measles is very easily preventable with a vaccine.

Amadou Dari DIALLO