A collection of campaign stories captured and curated by Linksbridge SPC
Top news about health campaigns from Uganda, Zambia, Malaysia, DRC and more. Learn the latest about countrywide campaigns, outbreak responses and local campaigns. This news round-up also includes a story on the economics of running campaigns during COVID-19.
Featured Stories
Uganda launched a countrywide campaign on June 17 to distribute 27 million mosquito nets. Targeting all citizens, the drive—moved back from its scheduled April launch due to a coronavirus lockdown—will occur in phases, starting in districts with the highest malaria prevalence and those affected by floods. Uganda Ministry of Health
Zambia ran its annual Child Health Week event from June 22 to 26—providing integrated health services to all children through facility- and outreach-based campaigns. Services included catch-up IPV for children 3 to 59 months old who missed type-2 containing polio vaccination, bivalent HPV vaccination for 14- and 15-year-old girls, vitamin A supplementation for children 6 to 59 months, and deworming activities for children between 1 and 5 years old. WHO; Zambia Ministry of Health
Outbreak Responses
After a two-month delay, Malaysia’s Sabah state resumed its polio outbreak response campaign in June—vaccinating all children in the state under the age of 13 regardless of nationality or immunization status. The country recorded three cases of VDPV1 in 2019, with one in 2020 to date. The Star; GPEI
The Democratic Republic of the Congo began an Ebola vaccination campaign in the riverfront city of Mbandaka to combat the country’s eleventh outbreak, declared on June 1. About 7,500 doses are available to vaccinate 50 rings of 150 people each, and an additional 8,000 doses will follow. Meanwhile, WHO announced the official end of the North Kivu outbreak on June 25. The second-largest in history, that epidemic saw 3,470 cases, 2,287 deaths and 1,171 survivors. The New York Times; WHO; WHO
Local Campaigns
From June 15–19, Rwanda reached 5 million children between 1 and 15 years of age with deworming tablets during its biannual Mother and Child Health Week campaign. Postponed from March due to COVID-19, the event also included vitamin A supplementation and HPV vaccination, as well as additional screening and health promotion activities. WHO
Sticking to pre-pandemic plans, Sierra Leone’s mass insecticide-treated nets (ITN) distribution campaign ran from late May through June—aiming to distribute more than 4 million units. UNICEF
From June 8–15, Guinea-Bissau distributed 1.3 million long-lasting mosquito nets, disbursing them door-to-door to avoid large gatherings, in keeping with COVID-19 preventive measures. UNDP
On June 24, Syria concluded a five-day-long national catch-up immunization campaign, vaccinating more than 210,100 children with routine immunizations. UNICEF
Initially planned for April 18–19, Nepal has rescheduled its biannual national vitamin A supplement campaign to July 6–7—targeting 2.7 million children 6 to 59 months of age. During the program, children between 1 and 5 years old will also be given deworming tablets. Rising Nepal Daily
Myanmar will run its first HPV vaccination campaign in September when schools re-open—targeting more than 450,000 girls between 9 and 10 years old. The drive was initially set to launch in August. Myanmar Times
Campaign Resources
In June, ThinkWell published updated results on the additional costs of conducting immunization campaigns during the COVID-19 pandemic—showing that added protective measures and operational changes could increase the operational cost of a campaign by 49% in a low-intensity andup to 154% in a high-intensity scenario. Immunization Economics