Immunization Program
Roteang Village Immunization Program
Sea Soapeak, 12 years old, and a village boy in Thom commune of Roteang village, has never had a tetanus shot, although he runs barefoot along with the animals in the mud and the dust of the village roads and fields. He has never had polio protection, or MMR [Mumps, Measles Rubella] nor Hepatitis B immunization either, all shots routinely given to American children by their first birthday or soon after.
Last year we had two deaths at Roteang Orphanage from tetanus; this year we just
completed testing of the under 18 year olds in our adjacent village and found
over 5% of the children already to be carriers of active Hepatitis B, a life long
infection from which many will die young, and which they also can spread to others
as they mature.
TSF, with the generous help of The Claneil Foundation, the Entertainment Industry
Foundation, the Women's International Group of Phnom Penh, the First Religious
Society {Unitarian} of Carlisle MA, and many smaller gifts from individuals and
churches, decided to mount an immunization campaign for the village children,
approximately 1250 children in all.
We checked with Government authorities, and found that though WHO (the World Health
Organization) had promised to provide immunization for children under 5 years
old, nothing specific was planned. We were told that education about immunization
was a big problem too, and a Ministry of Health spokesman said “[they] notice
that when we [TSF] call for vaccination, the villagers all come, but when they
make such a program, the villagers all run away and escape”. The Ministry
offers a very limited program for children under 1 year, and adult women tetanus,
and BCG.
We began the Hepatitis B program on February 3 and in four days, Dr Ly and her
crew of doctors, plus Dany (the head nanny at Roteang Orphanage) and the head
farmer who knows everyone in the village had identified, inoculated and recorded
the first Hep B shot for over 950 children under 18 years of age. On Feb. 4th
the Women's Group of Phnom Penh sent observers with T-shirts for adolescent girls
[they sponsored vaccine for 50] and sweets for all.
The Hepatitis B progra requires 3 shots over six month, and the cost for this
progam alone will be over $22,500. The cost per child is $19; for children over
15 years, where a twice the dose of vaccine is needed the cost rise to $34 This
includes vaccine, syringe, swabs, records for us and the recipient, This adds
up to a signifianct cost, with about 1250 children to test and vaccinate. We also
bore the cost of pre-testing for active Hep B status ahead of time, at a cost
of $2.35 per child, or $2900 total. Fortunately, thanks to generous donations,
we have the Hepatitis B vaccination program in hand.
Phase two of the Immunization Program will be DTaP /polio immunization of the
children—DT for children over 6 years. We estimate there will be about 900
children in this program as some we begun in the National Immunization Project
but never completed there course. Again three doses of the vaccines are needed,
or a total of about 2700 doses for each vaccine. The cost is about $20.22 per
child for complete polio and DTaP/ DT immunization, toalling about $25,000 for
the whole village of children. Some of this we already have in hand, and we are
looking hard to raise the rest.
Phase three will be MMR, Mumps, Measles Rubella, this thankfully, is one shot,
and will be administered to all children over 1 year. No child has had any to
date, so we need about 1250 doses. We have located the MMR in Thailand at a cost
of $4.50/ dose; with needle, syringe, swabs, record keeping and Doctor fee, this
will make the cost $5.12/dose administered, or about $6400 to do the whole village
of children. We are looking to raise all of this.
We anticipate after completing immunization 0f the village children that we will
keep up with “new” children as they appear, so that this one rural village,
at least, will have basic immunization that is just standard for American children.
If we are fortunate and raise more money than is required, we will offer our financial
aid (meaning pay our doctor and crew) and our name to get childbearing age women
protected from tetanus [this also protects their newborns] and participate in
a BCG [TB protection] campaign. The Ministry of Health will supply materials for
all this: they just want our name and our personnel.