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Nigeria: How to coordinate a vaccination campaign during a meningitis outbreak

31 May 17 | 14 Jul 21
This article is more than one year old

Nigeria: How to coordinate a vaccination campaign during a meningitis outbreak

A small girl holds her MSF vaccination card in Damaturu town, in the north-eastern Nigerian state of Yobe. Caption
A small girl holds her MSF vaccination card in Damaturu town, in the north-eastern Nigerian state of Yobe.

Nigeria is experiencing its largest outbreak of meningitis in nine years.

According to the World Health Organization, there were 13,943 suspected meningitis cases and 1,112 deaths between December and May.

In response, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is working with the Ministry of Health in Nigeria. 

We have treated 2,400 patients so far and supported the vaccination of over 176,600 people.

MSF logistician Daniela Muñoz blogs from Yobe, where she describes the huge undertaking of coordinating this mass vaccination campaign.

"When you organise mass vaccination campaigns, every single last detail must be controlled.

For MSF's current meningitis intervention in Yobe, this is a massive undertaking: it so far involved successfully vaccinating 136,000 people in a week, in remote areas where temperatures exceed 40°C.

You even have to think about the kind of pens you'll need.

At MSF's out-patient department in Batil refugee camp Gandhi Pant, a nurse, escorts a patient with a possible appendicitis to a waiting ambulance. 

Batil is one of three camps in South Sudan’s Upper Nile State sheltering at least 113,000 refugees who have crossed the border from Blue Nile state to escape fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the SPLM-North armed group. Refugees arrive at the camp with harrowing stories of being bombed out of their homes, or having their villages burned. The camps into which they have poured are on a vast floodplain, leaving many tents flooded and refugees vulnerable to disease. Mortality rates in Batil camp are at emergency levels, malnutrition rates are more than five times above emergency thresholds, and diarrhea and malarial cases are rising.

Help us prepare for the next emergency

An MSF worker prepares a dose for the injection of a vaccine against meningitis in Damaturu, Yobe state, Nigeria. Caption
An MSF worker prepares a dose for the injection of a vaccine against meningitis in Damaturu, Yobe state, Nigeria.

1. Cold chain

The most delicate and essential part of logistics is maintaining the cold chain.

This means keeping the vaccines at a constant temperature between two and eight degrees - otherwise, the vaccination loses its full effect.

From the time the vaccines leave Europe until vaccinators use them in the field, there is a long journey, in which dozens of people participate. We need to ensure the material is supervised at all times.

Once the vaccines are flown into the Nigerian capital, Abuja, MSF officials organise a special reception at the customs office to prevent them from being retained for long.

From there, they are transported in refrigerated trucks to a cold room at the Ministry of Health, where distribution to the bases within the state of Yobe is organised. 

When you organise mass vaccination campaigns, every single last detail must be controlled.

Daniela Muñoz
|
MSF logistician

For this trip, we use portable coolers loaded with ice-packs to last for a several hour journey by road.

When the vaccines reach the operational bases, they are stored in electric fridges that have been running for at least two or three days before and have a stable temperature. From there, the teams coordinate the dispatch to the districts affected by the outbreak.

Often electricity is a service that is not available or is scarce in places where we launch these interventions. It implies always having generators, an electrical installation and enough space to have all this material at hand.

Fuel is also required for the devices to operate 24 hours a day, which is not easy in non-urban contexts affected by crises.

2. Transport

Choosing the right transport is not easy either.

For example, air traffic to northern Nigeria is limited because MSF can only use the United Nations or Red Cross flights that arrive in Maiduguri. They are small aircraft that only allow light cargo.

This forces us to transport cargo along main roads, which are in good condition and do not present security problems.

However, the same does not apply at vaccination points. Some places are more than a two-hour drive from our bases and there is no other option than by car.

We can’t risk walking because of the possible presence of members of Boko Haram in the area.

Our logisticians have to control the movements of the cars at all times, alongside manning telecommunications by radio, mobile and satellite telephones.

3. Microplan

Beyond all the logistical aspects of handling the cold chain, searching for cars and materials, houses, mattresses and even mosquito nets, MSF's efforts would be in vain if a microplan had not been developed: a detailed mapping of all the areas where we vaccinate.

We need to know how far (up to the kilometre) the destinations are from the bases, the conditions of the routes, what happens if it rains or is sunny, the number of people who live in each place and the population type.

This is fundamental in Nigeria, where there are many fulanis (nomadic herding tribes). 

An MSF worker controls the queue of children waiting to be vaccinated against meningitis in Damaturu, northern Nigeria. Caption
An MSF worker controls the queue of children waiting to be vaccinated against meningitis in Damaturu, northern Nigeria.

Communities must be made aware of vaccinations with enough time so that as many of them can attend as possible.

When it comes to meningitis, people's attendance is generally quite good because they fear the disease.

However, this is not always the case. Some vaccines require a painful injection, which can deter people, making it hard to persuade them to attend the following rotations.

1_1_Patients

1 in 6

FATALITY RATE OF BACTERIAL MENINGITIS

5_2_Treatment_AccessToHealthcare

20%

RATE OF SEVERE COMPLICATIONS FROM BACTERIAL MENINGITIS

2_1_WorldMap

26

COUNTRIES IN THE MENINGITIS BELT

4. Unforeseen events

No matter how much we control all the technical details, and no matter how much the vaccination teams are trained, unforeseen events can always arise.

A road closed off for hours. A warning of an attack forcing us to suspend gathering people for the vaccination. Rushing off with refrigerators without the vaccines in them.

These are mistakes that can happen in a massive mobilisation involving more than 50 vehicles and teams - an intervention where you have to control up to the very last pen.

MSF in Nigeria

Nigeria With over 190 million inhabitants, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa.

Nigeria also has one of the fastest-growing economies, which is based primarily on the petroleum industry. However, a decade-long conflict has devastated the northeast of the country. Thousands have been killed and nearly two million people have been uprooted since fighting broke out between the military and non-state armed groups.

Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has been responding to disease outbreaks and emergency health needs in Nigeria for many years, focusing on maternal and paediatric healthcare throughout the country and scaling up our activities in the northeast as vast numbers of people caught up in the conflict depend on aid to survive.