Sierra Leone: Second round of Cholera vaccination starts for mudslide victims

05 Octobre 2017

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone, October 5 (Infosplusgabon) -  The Sierra Leonean Ministry of Health and Sanitation has started the second round of the Oral Cholera Vaccination for 25 communities that were affected by the 14 August mudslide.

The second round of vaccination is a follow up to the first vaccination that was done in September. Like the previous round, the vaccination will target up to 500,000 adults and children in the affected communities.

The vaccination follows the August 14 mudslide disaster, for which the World Health Organization and other aid agencies suggested the vaccination exercise because of the possible contamination of water sources.

Communication lead for the project, Harold Thomas, told that they would be using door-to-door strategy to give the second dose, because it has proved to be successful.

During the first round of vaccination, "we were able to give doses of vaccines to 250 and up to 300 people per day,” Thomas said.

Health authorities say the first round of vaccination went successful, with most people cooperating with health workers.

However, there have been reports of minimal resistance by some people, in which cases they refused to take the vaccine.

The vaccination exercise is expected to last till 10 October.

FIN/INFOSPLUSGABON/AOI/GABON 2017

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