Tajikistan

Frontline Diary

29 September 2004: Measles campaign reached 24 per cent nationwide coverage in just 2 days

© UNICEF Tajikistan/2004/Pirozzi

Lynn Geldof (left) with children of Tajikistan.

The government of Tajikistan has launched a nationwide measles campaign to protect almost 3 million children and young people against a disease that is a major child-killer in the developing world. Over 6,000 government health workers fanned out over the country aimed at immunizing almost 50 per cent of the country’s total population over the next two weeks. The campaign is being supported by UNICEF, WHO and the US-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. UNICEF’s Lynn Geldof is an international observer for social mobilization issues and is travelling with one of the immunization teams.  In this Frontline Diary entry she gives her personal view of the immunization campaign.

DUSHANBE, TAJIKISTAN, 29 September 2004 – At the crack of dawn, we are traveling on the road back to Varzob District in order check on the progress of the outreach part of the campaign.

© UNICEF/HQ04-0653/Pirozzi

A woman health worker fills a syringe to vaccinate Farida, a 12-year-old girl in Dushanbe, during the national immunization campaign.

Outreach is the trickiest part by far, and the one to watch closely when it comes to the possibility of spoiling vaccines due to unsuitable temperature. The Varzob Ambulatory Family Medical Care Centre is spotless. I notice they put a wet cloth in front of the doorstep, much like a welcome mat, in hopes that it will absorb the dust on the soles of your shoes.

I spy the ice packs, sitting on a clean cloth atop the freezer, ready to go into the vaccine carriers. I panic, thinking that the ice packs should not be out in the air like that, only to be calmed by Dr. Shamigul Radjabova, Director of Immunization at the centre. “You have to take the ice packs out half an hour before they go into the carriers. You let them sweat and then you must dry them off like this,” she assures me.

Her doughty team of outreach workers – Dr. Nazar Rasulov, 32 and Dr. Zubaidulo Abduloyev, 28, along with nurse Rajabmo Mahmudova, 25 - line up with their vaccine carriers. Four ice packs and five vials of vaccine go into each of the two carriers. Then they get a UNICEF bag into which go the waste disposal boxes for the used needles and syringes along with various medicines, all for the inhabitants of a community reached only by foot.

After a short drive, the team is unceremoniously dropped off at the roadside. The community of Fanfarok, reached only by foot, is a strenuous two-hour hike from this point. Eighty children and young adults anxiously await the team’s arrival. We wish the team luck and watch as they disappear from view.

© UNICEF Tajikistan/2004/Pirozzi

Dr. Tarek Hussain (right) congratulates Timur Malikov, 8, who has just been immunized against measles.

In a new direction now, we travel to Kindergarten No. 1 in the Leninsky District. Things have been moving quickly here also. Yesterday, 112 youngsters from the ages of 2-5 years were immunized. The target is 150.
A tiresome ring on someone’s mobile interrupts immunization proceedings.  But then – fantastic!  A text message appears on the phone from Indigo, the phone company: ‘Vaccinate all your children, 1-18, free of charge from UNICEF. Take your children to school or to a medical point between 27 Sept to 10 Oct. Protect the health of our children.’

Back in Dushanbe, even better news! Dr. Tarek Hussain, who is organizing the campaign for UNICEF, is highly pleased with the figures just received: 24 percent average nationwide coverage in just two days! How sweet to witness success, having immunized Tajikistan against the scourge of measles.