US Embassy Humanitarian Assistance Teams support EPI

I met the Director of the US Embassy Humanitarian Assistance Team in Mali socially in Bamako, and he explained the mission of the US Embassy Humanitarian Assistance Team (HAT) as essentially being a technology transfer of Humanitarian Assistance capacity to the country's army in which teams are based. He also explained that other than conducting "Medcaps", events at which they have stands to perform free services ranging from AIDS testing to medical consultations, that they had an avid interest in strengthening immunization and working with the MoH and NGO's, particularly national ones, to reinforce their programs.

The next day, I introduced him to the EPI Director at MoH Mali, and within 48 hours, 280,000 doses of Polio and Pneumo were flown to Gao for the catchment areas of Gao and Kidal. Every month since then, free air freight is made available to the MoH with a cargo allowance of 600-900kg per flight to destinations in the North (Gao, Timbuktou, Kidal, others). These vaccines would have spent 3-4 days in transit by road, thus reducing the odds of damage due to transportation and accelerating the country's cold chain transportation logistics schedule. That same day, we met with Village Foundation International who have been working to raise diabetes awareness in Mali; 3 days later, they were using testing kits supplied by vfingo.org to test for diabetes in Gao at their scheduled MedCap event (311/400 people had high blood sugar levels indicative of potentially being diabetic of prone to diabetes). Additionally, the HAT teams have the ability to fund small to medium range projects on a case by case basis with a fast-track approval process for projects under USD 10,000. Such support could be extended to Health Care Waste Management projects, Water Pumping or Solar Refrigeration systems as well, for example.

 

These guys are dynamic, un-bureaucratic, thorough and passionate about what they do. Their chief, based in Germany would like to see more such collaborations in the West African countries in which he has teams: Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Chad, Mauritania. Personally, this is some of fastest and most effective support that I've ever seen lent in development and I very much encourage EPI directors in Ministries of Health in these countries, as well as representatives of WHO, UNICEF, and others involved in Immunization to make contact with these country team leaders to take advantage of their generous offers to support immunization and involve the armies of these countries in Humanitarian Assistance, particularly in the realm of immunization. If you are working in any of these countries and interested in collaborating with the US Embassy Humanitarian Assistance Teams, please contact Technet21 member USHAT1 with inquiries or post comments and questions below.

After seeing the speed with which the Mali based US Humanitarian Assistance Team was able to lend support to Immunization in collaboration with the Malian military, I asked if there was the potential to involve the Military in campaigns. The Director of the US Embassy Humanitarian Assistance Team in Mali expressed that they could help with campaigns at their MedCap events (approximately one per month, each at a new location, with 800+ participants). While this may prove somewhat helpful, it would likely have limited benefits when weighed against the complexity of coordinating the effort with a national campaign, but... it did get me thinking.

Could armies help to break the cycle of immunization campaigns?

Historically, even in the US, the army has helped to mass vaccinate populations. We have an ongoing dilemma of campaigns to catch up on routine immunization targets, which in turn slow down routine immunization activity, which then require more campaigns to make up for that! In countries that are not at war, could armies not help Ministries of Health to administer campaigns? The army in turn benefits from an improved image vis-a-vis the population while contributing to public health. 

Additionally, programs such as the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) have eligibility criteria that include social sector indicators such as immunization rates. In Mali, this could perhaps help the country become once again eligible for the MCC Compact programs.

While I recognize the complexity of inter-ministerial collaboration (MoH & MoD), and know very little about the day to day activities of armies that are not at war, it seems to me that with the growing trend of incorporating Humanitarian Assistance into armies in developing countries, and the strong support of the US Department of Defense through their Humanitarian Assistance Teams, that there must be scope here for countries to escape the cycle of campaigns so that they can focus on strengthening their routine immunization programs instead of perpetually scrambling to carry out campaigns.

Are there countries out there in which the Military is actively involved in immunization, and in particular in the speedy execution of campaigns? If deemed viable as an approach, how would we go about supporting such an initiative in countries that are incorporating Humanitarian Assistance programs into their Military? Could such a program tie into pandemic preparedness programs that in theory would require the involvement of the Military, and build capacity in that regard?

Technet21 members from Ministries of Health around the world, would you welcome the support of your military for immunization campaigns?

Colleagues at WHO, UNICEF, USAID, UNMIL and others -- what are your thoughts and experiences in this regard?

Tags: transportation, immunization, pneumo, logistics, campaigns, Africa, medical waste, distribution, polio