(P1-69) Joint Military and NGO Vaccination Campaign in Remote Areas in Haiti

Abstract

Introduction

The January 12 2010 7.0-magnitude earthquake's epicenter hit just 10 miles west of Porte-au-Prince and its 2 million inhabitants at 4:53 pm.

Problem

Although assistance arrived to major ports and cities from all corners of the globe, access from rural and remote areas to centralized hospitals remained difficult. Many of the injured were without access to transportation even a month after the earthquake. Earthquake victims in remote areas have less access to wound care and running water, and therefore more pone to infection and tetanus.

Response

Our group was comprised of a civilian mobile medical team able to negotiate difficult terrain by foot with vehicle support provided by the 82nd Airborne military. The military support supplied vehicles and experience needed to tackle the difficult terrain. Because the vaccines are temperature sensitive, delivery of them to remote areas with long travel times in hot climates is logistically difficult and requires coordination. In order to assure vaccines would not be wasted, they were picked up from the WHO the morning of deployment and stored in coolers without direct contact with ice. An advance team would arrive to the target site first to coordinate with local community leaders and gather patients with tetanus prone wounds in a central area. A second team would transport the amount of vaccine needed as estimated by the advance team.

Result

Our group vaccinated approximately 300 people without access to the centralized hospitals per day using this system, with no vials of vaccine wasted or spoiled.