Reactive mass vaccination campaign against cholera in the COVID-19 context in Cameroon: challenges, best practices and lessons learned.

INTRODUCTION: since 1971, Cameroon is facing a growing series of cholera epidemics despite all the efforts made by the government to address this huge public health threat. In 2020, in addition to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cameroon recorded a high cholera case fatality rate of 4.3% following epidemics noted in the South, Littoral and South-West regions. The Cameroon Ministry of Public Health, has thus organized a reactive vaccination campaign against cholera to address the high mortality rate in the affected health districts of those regions. The objective of this study was to describe the challenges, best practices and lessons learned drawing from daily experiences from this reactive vaccination campaign against cholera. METHODS: we conducted a cross-sectional study drawn from the results of the campaign. We had a target population of 631,109 participants aged 1 year and above resident of the targeted health areas. RESULTS: the overall vaccination coverage was 64.4% with a refusal rate ranging from 0-10% according to health districts. Vaccination coverage was the lowest among people aged 20 years and above. The main challenge was difficulty maintaining physical distanciation, the main best practice was the screening of all actors taking part at the vaccination against COVID-19 and we found that emphasizing on thorough population sensitization through quarter heads and social mobilizers and adequately programming the campaign during a good climate season is crucial to achieving good vaccination coverage. CONCLUSION: lessons learned from this study could serve to inform various agencies in the event of planning rapid mass vaccination programs during pandemics.

The first 30 days of COVID-19 vaccination in Cameroon: achievements, challenges, and lessons learned.

Introduction: Cameroon's national vaccination campaign was launched on April 12, 2021, amid a nationwide outbreak of COVID-19 with two types of vaccines. This study provides preliminary evidence to assess early outputs of the COVID-19 vaccination response strategy implementation. Methods: a cross-sectional study was conducted from April 12, 2021, to May 11, 2021, and data on COVID-19 vaccination were reviewed from the Ministry of Public Health database. Descriptive statistical analyses were conducted. Results: thirty days after the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines, just about five percent of the target population was vaccinated. Women represented one-third of the people vaccinated regardless of age and health conditions. Although AEFI reported were minor and scanty with both vaccines, most of the vaccinated did not come back for their second dose. There was a need to build confidence among eligible beneficiaries to expand the benefits of vaccination to control the current pandemic. Conclusion: the country was still far below the target, which was worrisome given that vaccine uptake was slow. Also, 391 200 doses of the Covishield were at risk of expiration in August 2021. This study offers insights into those early efforts contributing to significant discussions about the approaches to improve service delivery and vaccine uptake.