Mellit, July 26(Darfur24)
Mohammed Adam Ibrahim, Director of the Immunization Department in Mellit Locality, North Darfur, revealed that immunization vaccines have run out, amid increasing risks threatening women and children.
Ibrahim told “Darfur24” that the vaccines had arrived in the locality last June from El Fasher city, to implement vaccination campaigns for targeted children and women against the six diseases, and only measles and oral polio vaccines remained, indicating that part of the targeted people were covered by vaccinating children and women of childbearing age with the tetanus vaccine, without being able to reach all the targeted people.
Ibrahim expressed his concern about the increasing challenges facing the immunization center in the region, represented by the unavailability of vaccines in the previous period and the failure to complete some routine campaigns, explaining that this led to an increase in the number of targeted people.
He added that “security obstacles and lack of communication between the state administration and the Mellit locality center and the fixed and mobile centers in the area, caused a lack of work aids for the locality’s immunization department, and may expose women and children in the area to the risk of contracting diseases, if quick solutions are not found.”
He stated that they face major challenges in implementing mobile campaigns for the same reasons, in addition to a problem in the storage chain in refrigerators due to the loss of energy sources and the lack of solar energy strips.
Ibrahim appealed to the Federal Ministry of Health and health partners from relevant organizations and stakeholders supporting maternal and child health, to strive by all means to save the women and children of Mellit by providing vaccines urgently to enable them to complete their campaigns.