Featured Stories
Afghanistan on December 25 launched a four-day anti-polio campaign, seeking to vaccinate roughly 8.8 million children. Targeting children under age 5, the effort was expected to reach at least 20 of the country’s 34 provinces. In 42 high-risk districts in the eastern provinces of Kunar, Laghman and Nangarhar, the campaign was extended to seven days and the target population expanded to children under age 10. La Prensa Latina; Radio Free Europe; Amu
Responding to a cholera outbreak, officials in the DRC targeted more than 5 million people ages 1 and above in an OCV campaign. The exercise spanned 15 health zones in the provinces of Haut-Katanga, North Kivu, South Kivu and Tanganyika. Kicking off on December 11 in at least some of the targeted areas, the five-day effort enlisted more than 8,000 immunization workers, 1,836 outreach supervisors and 1,925 social mobilizers. The campaign included the health zones of Binza, Birambizo, Goma, Karisimbi, Kirotshe, Mweso, Nyiragongo, Rutshuru (North Kivu), Fizi, Mulungu, Shabunda, Uvira (South Kivu), Kalemie, Nyemba (Tanganyika) and Pweto (Haut-Katanga). WHO AFRO
Outbreak Response
A series of measles campaigns in thirteen Nigerian states continued in December. On December 2, Yobe launched a seven-day follow-up campaign targeting children ages 9-59 months at designated vaccination sites across all 17 LGAs. Elsewhere, Borno ran a nine-day measles effort from November 25-December 3 aimed at the same demographic. Similar campaigns have taken place since October in Ebonyi, Kano, Katsina, Kwara and elsewhere. Nigeria’s National Primary Health Care Development Agency reviewed a measles readiness assessment dashboard in October, in advance of the campaigns. Leadership; NPHCDA (1); NPHCDA (2); Voice of Nigeria (1); Voice of Nigeria (2); Voice of Nigeria (3)
Security concerns in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa led officials in the Pakistani province to suspend a polio vaccination drive in two districts. Scheduled to commence on December 18, the campaign was suspended in the adjoining Dera Ismail Khan and Tank districts after an attack in Tank that killed three police officers. AAJ English
Integrated Campaigns
Nepal’s Karnali province carried out a measles-rubella and typhoid vaccination campaign from December 21-30. In Jajarkot and Rukum West—two districts significantly affected by a November earthquake—the effort was expected to administer MR vaccines to children ages 6 months to 15 years and typhoid vaccines to people ages 16-45. Meanwhile, the nearby districts of Dailekh, Jumla, Kalikot, Salyan and Surkhet offered typhoid vaccines only. Officials hoped to reach as many as 600,000 people with the typhoid jab. My Republica; Kathmandu Post
Peru ran its third national vaccination day of 2023 from December 13-17, aiming to close immunization gaps against 28 maladies. Officials sought to reach 45,000 children with some 150,000 vaccine doses against diseases including chickenpox, Covid-19, diphtheria, hepatitis A and B, measles, mumps, pertussis, pneumonia, polio, rubella, tetanus and yellow fever. Peru MoH
Local Campaigns
India’s Punjab state carried out a “Pulse Polio Campaign” December 10-12. Focusing on locales where migrants congregate (such as “brick kilns, construction sites, slums and settlements,” according to The Tribune), the subnational exercise targeted 1,475,000 children under age 5, with approximately 25,000 officials providing oral polio drops in 12 districts: Amritsar, Bathinda, Faridkot, Fatehgarh Sahib, Fazilka, Mansa, Moga, Pathankot, Patiala, SBS Nagar, Sri Muktsar Sahib and Tarn Taran. The Tribune
Togo conducted a catch-up HPV campaign from November 27 to December 1. Coming in the lead-up to the country’s planned December 4 introduction of the HPV vaccine into its routine immunization system, the effort sought to reach approximately 656,240 girls ages 9-14. Gavi