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MSF mobilizes workers for Yellow Fever vaccination campaign in DR Congo

Xinhua, August 18, 2016 Adjust font size:

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has mobilized considerable human and material resources to support Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) authorities in a massive vaccination campaign against Yellow Fever.

Speaking on Wednesday in Kinshasa, MSF's emergency coordinator Axelle Ronsse said the campaign which will be conducted for the next ten days, will target 10.5 million people.

"MSF has mobilized 100 teams of 16 people each in three health zones of Kinshasa. Meanwhile, 58 expatriates and 103 Congolese MSF workers will participate in the campaign that targets 760,000 people," Ronsse said.

She said 1,700 employees of Congolese health ministry will work alongside the MSF teams in the three health zones in Kinshasa.

The MSF official said this large scale vaccination campaign will present a number of logistical challenges, but noted that it was essential to conduct it because it was the most effective way of halting the spread of the epidemic.

Ronsse said MSF was present since the outbreak of the epidemic in DR Congo and was currently working in Kinshasa and Kwango province, near the border with Angola.

"It has already supported the Congolese health ministry to vaccinate the entire population of Matadi town which has 370,000 people," she said, adding that her organization had set aside 2.4 million euros to vaccinate about a million people against the deadly disease within Matadi and Kinshasa.

Ronsse equally noted that MSF was taking care of suspected and confirmed Yellow Fever cases, and had organized awareness campaigns for the concerned communities.

The World Health Organization said since the start of the epidemic in central Africa in January 2016, 879 cases have been confirmed in Angola with 119 deaths, while DR Congo has had 74 confirmed cases and 16 deaths.

Vaccination is the best way to prevent against this disease which kills between 15 to 50 percent of people who develop its severe form. Endit