Africa’s first-ever mass typhoid fever vaccination campaign ends in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is the first country in Africa to have the vaccine and to have used it in the continent’s first-ever mass typhoid vaccination campaign as well as one that was launched in response to an outbreak situation.
The eight-day campaign took place in nine high-density Harare suburbs from25 February to 4 March. The Zimbabwe Government, through the Ministry of Health and Child Care and in collaboration with WHO, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and other partners, had planned to vaccinate 370 000 people, mostly children and adolescents, and had reached 73% of the targeted population in the first six days of the campaign.
In the first five days, the campaign sought out schools and nurseries, where the targeted age group could be easily reached in the key areas of Harare before fanning out through communities and clinics.