In the health district of Bédiondo, in the Mandoul province in southern Chad, measles epidemics are recurrent. The population often lives far from health centres and logistical constraints - poor road conditions, difficulties in maintaining a cold chain when outside temperatures exceed 40°C - make it difficult to organise routine vaccination activities. In support of the local health authorities, MSF implemented a large-scale measles vaccination campaign.
To vaccinate a population of children aged between 6 months and 14 years, estimated by the health authorities at around 134,000 people, nearly twenty thousand vials of ten doses of vaccine were sent from N'Djamena. With isolated houses and urban centres that are also commercial crossroads with Cameroon and the Central African Republic, it is very difficult to estimate precisely the number of children to be vaccinated. The role of the outreach workers is also essential here.