Strengthening Vaccination Programs in Haiti’s Urban Communities to End Vaccine-Preventable Deaths

Between January and October 2017, JSI conducted a situational analysis on the status of immunization coverage in Cité Soleil, Haiti, and proposed a model to improve coverage which is part of Gavi's technical assistance to the country. Unfortunately, this model, for lack of time and adequate resources, has been only partially implemented. Despite these challenges in setting a complete model, partial but effective interventions were implemented in Cité Soleil. The implementation of the first phase has achieved encouraging results in the improvement of vaccination coverage.

Following the results of the equity study from the Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP), conducted in 2017, results according to which 42% of children who have not received the 3 doses of Penta during the last three years reside in 3 municipalities of the Metropolitan Area (Port-au-Prince, Cité Soleil, and Carrefour) and in two major cities (Gonaïves and Saint-Marc) Health Department of Artibonite. Based on this observation, JSI proposes, during this second year of the project, to continue the implementation of the model in Cité Soleil, to consolidate its experience and build staff capacity before moving to other urban centers facing the same realities

Overall, the implementation of short-term interventions began to show an improvement of vaccination coverage in Cité Soleil. For the first time, access to immunization services improved significantly in Cité Soleil with BCG / DPT1 coverage of 52.0% and 47% (January – December 2017) compared to BCG / DPT1 coverage of 22.3% and 22.5% (January – December 2016).  Although the use of services (DPT3 and RR covers) remained slightly at a low level, the implementation of the model as a whole with long-term interventions could quickly change the situation in the direction of improvement.

For more on JSI's work in urban immunization, please learn about our Gavi-funded projects in Indonesia, Ghana, DRC, Kyrgyzstan, and Pakistan.