BUCHANAN, Grand Bassa – County health authorities have reported that over the past nine months, 5,271 children under five years of age have been fully immunized in Buchanan.

The report from the eight health districts of Grand Bassa covers the period from October 2016 to June 2017.

The children who were fully immunized took all the recommended vaccines, including the Bacillus Calmette–Guérin vaccine for tuberculosis, doses of the measles vaccine, the Oral Polio Vaccine, and a yellow fever vaccine, among others.

In conversations with mothers from rural areas in Grand Bassa, they cited the increased level of awareness conducted by health authorities as key to drawing their interest about the vaccination campaign.

Baby mothers sitting attentively in line for vaccination at Compound One Clinic. Photo: Sampson David

One such mother, Clara Lewis, told The Bush Chicken at the Compound One Clinic that in the past, many children were left susceptible to preventable diseases due to the lack of proper awareness conducted in their communities. She says health workers now preach the message of the importance of vaccination to pregnant women at all stages of their pregnancy.

‘’Well, the health workers when we come here, they can talk to us well, take care of us good, and give us good medicine,” Lewis said. “For me, they can give medicine and my heart can be satisfied. They can give my children vaccines – in fact, all my children I have been borning, they have been taking vaccines in this hospital.”

Another mother spotted at the Compound One Clinic, Naomi Dahn, said she and other mothers felt encouraged to bring their children to the clinic for the vaccinations because it is free of charge at all the clinics she has been visiting in the county.

However, while the mothers praised the vaccination campaign’s effective public awareness arm, women from harder to reach areas said the government needed to do more to make it easier to bring their children for vaccination.

They said if the government could adequately tackle the issue of mothers and pregnant women traveling long distances, there would be an increased in the number of vaccinated children in Grand Bassa and the country at large.

Featured photo by Sampson David