Measles in Gogrial West
After a series of progressively shrinking airports and UN planes, I landed on the dirt runway in Kuajok. Waiting at the airport-- if you can call four sticks with a tin roof an airport, were Wori and Simon from my team. I was joining a team of 9 people that had already been in the field for about a week, 7 from the ERT health team, and 2 from the ERT nutrition team, to respond to a measles outbreak in the area. Already there had been over 100 suspected cases of measles and one death in Gogrial West County. We were setting out to vaccinate over 75,000 kids for measles, and at the same time screen them for malnutrition. Even by ERT standards, this is a big project. The whole effort would take 99 teams of 8 people, 6 days of vaccination. Medair took responsibility for implementing vaccination, with support from the Ministry of Health, World Vision, and UNICEF. Coldbox for vaccine and icepacks being stored in a Tukul. Measles vaccine is very particular; it has to be kept betw