Inside Madagascar’s Polio and Measles Vaccination Campaign October 2024

In 2018, 1,000 children were killed in Madagascar by a preventable disease – measles. Since then, vaccination coverage for measles has remained low (65% in 2022) and measles outbreaks have recurred across several districts since 2023, when over 350 children got measles. In 2024, as of October, over 60 children had gotten measles across the country.

At the same time, Madagascar has been fighting outbreaks of another devastating preventable disease – type 1 variant poliovirus, which paralyzed 53 children and 2 adults in the country between September 2020 and September 2023. Luckily, thanks to the dedicated efforts of health workers to reach all children with polio vaccines, no cases have been reported since.

To end polio in Madagascar and eliminate measles, the Government, in collaboration with partners of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), including the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organization (WHO) and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, has taken an integrated approach – offering vaccines for both polio and measles to families at the same time, with an aim of reaching children who have never received any vaccination before. Over a nationwide 5-day integrated campaign in October 2024, over 5.4 million children were vaccinated for polio and 4.6 million children for measles.

Keep reading for an inside look at this important campaign.

Before the start of the vaccination campaign, social mobilizer trainings and community advocacy meetings took place to ensure social mobilizers were supported with the skills and knowledge needed to effectively engage and educate communities. After training, they conducted awareness campaigns to inform families about the start of the campaign, when they could expect the teams to reach their community and the importance of vaccinating their children for both polio and measles.

The start of the 5-day campaign began with a national launch event in Ambositra attended by members of the Government, various officials in Madagascar, representatives of the United Nations, campaign staff and members of the local community. Professor Zely Arivelo Randriamanantany, Madagascar’s Minister of Public Health, spoke and emphasized the critical importance of reaching all children with lifesaving vaccines.

UNICEF youth advocate, Fy, also spoke at the launch of the campaign, highlighting the importance of vaccinations to protect children from measles and polio. She encouraged everyone to take advantage of this opportunity and to vaccinate their children.

The campaign was then up and running. At the start of each of the five days, teams of health workers, which included vaccinators and recorders from the Ministry of Health, gathered to collect the polio and measles vaccines that they administered to children in their communities.

Health workers carried both the polio and measles vaccines in portable coolers to ensure they were kept at just the right temperatures as they travelled to reach all eligible children.

While some teams travelled house-to-house, knocking on doors, speaking with families and administering vaccines there, others set up several vaccination sites near schools and other frequently visited places.

Social mobilizers also joined vaccinators throughout the campaign to answer questions and reassure any caregiver who may still have doubts about vaccinating their child. Here, Marie, a UNICEF mobilizer, was talking to parents who just arrived at a vaccine site.

She also went house-to-house to inform families of the campaign and encourage them to vaccinate their children.

All children aged five years old or younger received two drops of the oral polio vaccine, helping protect them from paralysis due to polio.

They also received the injectable measles vaccine.

After receiving the oral polio vaccine, any child less than 9 months old had their pinky marked purple to indicate they’ve been vaccinated.

All other children were given completed vaccination cards created specifically for this campaign, indicating that they received both vaccines.

Even campaign staff took the opportunity to have their own children vaccinated to ensure they too were protected against these devastating vaccine-preventable diseases.

The 5-day integrated polio and measles campaign protected over 5.4 million children from polio and 4.6 million from measles across the country.

It also reached over 180,000 children who had never received any vaccine before with the measles vaccine and over 140,000 children with the polio vaccine. Integrated campaigns like this one in Madagascar offer immense benefits to communities – they provide more essential health services for less, making them cost-saving, and more importantly, lifesaving.