Freetown – Although the very first case of COVID-19 didn’t emerge until late in March in Sierra Leone, by late April, immunization rates and the use of kid health care services had worryingly declined by about 19%.
Moms like Hawa Dumbuya feared making visits to a health facility, due to the fact that they were worried that with COVID-19 flowing by doing so they would put themselves and their children in harm’s method.
” I was afraid that going to the health center would expose us to coronavirus,” Dumbuya confesses.
The Ministry of Health and Sanitation moved quickly to stem the growing anxieties and reverse the avoidance of crucial child healthcare services.
Working with district interactions unit staff and in collaboration with UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO), the Ministry ramped up public health messaging through radio stations. The informative announcements, played across the country, urged moms and caregivers to continue taking their kids to health centres for the regular immunizations.
These messages provided parents like Dambuya reassurance to take her child, born in May, to her local health facility and to check on her own health. “Coming for shipment was a tough decision due to the fact that of the fear of COVID-19, however it was excellent that I was brought here,” says Dambuya.
” As we found out more about the disease and how to stay safe, it gave me courage to continue to seek health services while utilizing a mask and other preventive steps,” she states. “I came for vaccine for my child, and she was immunized.
The Ministry likewise made sure that vaccines were available at the district level with no depletion, which would have prevented health facility presence by parents and caregivers. The Ministry aggressively protected products to guarantee that all immunizations would be offered for anybody seeking them.
” First off, we made certain there was an enough stock of vaccines in the nation. We kept an eye on the distribution to public health centers. We also kept an eye on service usage by gathering and analysing information and supplying feedback to the districts on their efficiency,” explains Dr Tom Sesay, Supervisor of the Ministry’s Expanded Program on Immunization.
COVID-19 has actually enforced difficulties to keeping immunization and kid health care services. The WHO Sierra Leone nation workplace has escalated its technical help, with all immunization staff deployed to the field to assist incorporate immunization activities into the COVID-19 reaction, particularly at health facilities.
To raise awareness of the need for connection of immunization and vital kid health care services, WHO likewise released incorporated supportive guidance groups and STOP polio experts, to make use of their years of community outreach experience and knowledge.
Dr Thompson Igbu, who heads the WHO Sierra Leone Expanded Programme on Immunization team, emphasizes the significance of this connection: “One of the most cost-efficient public health interventions is vaccination because it secures a great deal of children. In Sierra Leone, we have 12 antigens in the regular immunization system. Supplying this service regularly to every eligible kid implies we are able to prevent health problems that would have otherwise occurred if those kids were not secured.”
The fast antidote to the increased stress and anxieties and disruptions to the regular immunization routine among the basic public is paying off. The rates of immunization are starting to return to the pre-COVID-19 levels of 90%for the third dose of pentavalent vaccine, which is administered at 6 weeks, 10 weeks and 14 weeks of age.
The next step is to provide households catch-up vaccination projects, total with all infection prevention and control procedures– physical distancing, face masks, hand hygiene.
Dr Igbu, like every public health specialist, knows just too well how even the tiniest interruption to the regular immunization of children can have extensive negative impact for families and communities. “An ill kid is unable to go to school or play actively, and the caregiver needs to take time from work to take care of the child’s health and purchase medicines,” he states. “This contributes to increasing family expenses and decreases the household funds that would be readily available for other things. Disease outbreaks can take place easily. Going unattended, it will have a great deal of negative impacts on society.”
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