In many areas, MSF’s teams were able to administer vaccines to the population during moments of calm between periods of fighting between armed groups, before the community became inaccessible again. In addition to vaccinating children, MSF used this opportunity to conduct nutritional screening and offer deworming treatment, medication for malaria, vitamins, soap and mosquito nets.
“Given the situation in CAR right now, one of the main lessons learnt from the campaign is ‘do it while you can!’ meaning taking advantage of every opportunity you have to reach children to protect them through vaccination combined with other preventive measures,” Pegg said.