15 Sep 2015

Vanuatu starts mass vaccination campaign

2:42 pm on 15 September 2015

Health authorities in Vanuatu have set an ambitious target of vaccinating more than 90,000 children across the country for measles over the next four weeks.

The joint initiative by the Ministry of Health, the WHO and UNICEF, will also introduce the rubella vaccine and deliver vitamin A supplements, deworming medication and polio vaccines.

A child is immunised for measles in Vanuatu following Cyclone Pam.

A child is immunised for measles in Vanuatu following Cyclone Pam. Photo: RNZ / Kim Baker Wilson

The campaign is being introduced after lessons learned from measles outbreaks in 2014 and earlier this year which revealed gaps in Vanuatu's national immunisation program.

It aims to reach at least 94,000 ni-Vanuatu children between the ages of one and fifteen.