A Chad Without Poliomyelitis Tomorrow

The young woman half-smiled, after having had two infants vaccinated against poliomyelitis at the Harazai health centre, in the northern district of the Chadian capital.

She is very pleased, she said.

Amina Adoum, head of the health centre, is responsible for supervising the third National Vaccination Campaign or NVC in the zone covered by the health centre. She seems preoccupied.

She told PANA that the operation was going on "smoothly" in the field, with the participation of district heads who accompany the vaccination teams.

"Mothers are particularly disposed, despite the embarrassment that may be caused by the eruption of a man in their courtyards. This results from the extensive sensitisation campaign which preceded the NVC," Adoum explains.

Adolescents who know the families well also serve as guides to the vaccinating agents and help dissuade children who, attracted by the sweet taste of the vaccine, come back for more.

Adoum is apparently satisfied. "I am pleased to accomplish a sacrifice, because it involves our children," she told PANA.

She is concerned about the Vitamin A stock shortage and complains about the lack of means of transportation, which would have facilitated a more efficient monitoring of the operation.

A car belonging to UNICEF, one of the state's partners in the organisation of the NVC, immediately drives her to the head office in N'djamena and its suburbs.

After a short explanation, Adoum takes possession of 10,000 doses of vitamin A, which is associated with the anti-polio vaccine and whose purpose is to strengthen the resistance of the child's body.

Dr. Djikoloum Ngarbeul, director of the N'djamena-Baguirmi health district, is conscious of the impact of the NVC results in his jurisdiction, and of the success of the campaign at the national level.

The targeted population is estimated at 1.5 million per campaign - the first two of which took place in April and May 2000 - throughout the country.

The forecasts say close to 360,000 children from 0 to 5 years have been covered in the zone in question, which is bigger than Benin and Togo put together and which hosts two million out of Chad's seven million people.

In the rural areas, Ngarbeul observes, the third NVC coincided with the harvest. "The door-to-door strategy makes it possible to identify families that had not been vaccinated during the team's initial passage," he explained.

Optimistic, the Chadian doctor is also pleased with the work that was "well done" in N'djamena as well as with the "effective" launching in the provinces where they should go on the third day of the NVC, inaugurated by President Idriss Deby Saturday.

He is certain about "the total commitment of all the local, traditional and religious authorities" and has full confidence in his 15 years of experience.

He considered that during the past 24 hours, he was able to overcome the obstacles encountered here and there in the field.

"The population variable is difficult to control in a country with a nomad population as well," he said in explaining the vaccine and vitamin A stock shortage reported in certain areas.

During the preparation of the NVC, no one expected, for example, that nomad families would set up camps in the southern suburbs of N'djamena. "But it was our duty to vaccinate the young children living in these camps," Ngarbeul stressed.

In fact, demographic projections were made on the basis of the 1993 census.

And the theoretical data have not been confirmed by the reality observed in the field. This sometimes results in vaccination rates that are a hundred percent higher, and this can imperil the success of the NVC.

Dr Pathe Diallo, the WHO representative in N'djamena, hopes to see the rate of vaccinal coverage in Chad improve soon, thanksthe ongoing and

future NVC, carried out with the participation of polio-virus victims.

A strong symbol and a sign of awareness, as if the physically handicapped wanted to say "never again," the Guinean paediatrician added, obviously pleased to be part of the team responsible for "kicking polio out of Africa" campaign.