DRC protects children against diseases despite Ebola outbreak
In 2019, with support from Gavi and Alliance partners, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) ran a nationwide vaccination campaign to protect almost 19 million children against measles, while also providing oral cholera vaccine (OCV) to affected populations and introducing rotavirus into the national immunisation programme – despite the huge challenges of an ongoing Ebola outbreak in eastern regions of the country.
In response to a cholera outbreak, more than 800,000 people in North Kivu province and 1.2 million people in Grand Kasai region received two doses of OCV from the Gavi-funded global cholera vaccine stockpile. The DRC also introduced rotavirus vaccine into its routine immunisation schedule, beginning with 10 provinces. By the end of 2020, coverage will be expanded to all provinces, reaching almost 2.9 million children. This introduction is part of the Mashako Plan, which aims to raise routine immunisation coverage by 15 percentage points.