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Kigoma/Geneva – This week, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) completed a cholera vaccination campaign to protect overcrowded Burundian and Congolese refugees in the Nyarugusu camp in Tanzania. However, there is an urgent need to improve sanitation in the camp as people still live in very dangerous conditions.
The second round of vaccinations, in response to the cholera outbreak among refugees in May, concluded on Monday, 27 July. More than 130,000 people were vaccinated in this round. The oral cholera vaccine, which must be given in two doses, offers a high level of protection. However, vaccination should be combined with other prevention and control measures, which are currently severely lacking in refugee camps.
“Vaccination is an urgent and necessary response not only to prevent loss of life but also to reduce the risk of new epidemics, and sanitary conditions in the camps must be improved quickly,” said Sita Cacioppe, MSF emergency coordinator.
The vaccination campaign is being jointly run by the Tanzanian Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). In the first round of vaccinations in June, 107,000 people (92% of the population at the time) received their first dose of the vaccine. But insecurity surrounding Burundi’s elections continues to force thousands of people across the Tanzanian border, and UNHCR says around 20,000 more people have been transported to refugee camps since the first round. Catch-up vaccinations will soon be organized to give a second dose to new arrivals whose overall vaccination status is unknown.
The number of people living in Nyarugusu has more than doubled in three months, as political unrest and violence in Burundi forced some 82,000 Burundians to cross the Tanzanian border to join 64,000 Congolese who have been living in the camps for nearly two decades. The rapid influx of refugees has overwhelmed all services, and humanitarian organizations are still struggling to provide enough water, food and shelter.
“People live in dusty, overcrowded conditions; they endure cold nights and have to queue for hours for water. While malaria is the main disease we treat, we also see a large number of respiratory infections and diarrhoea linked to poor sanitation,” Caciopé continued. “Such precarious living conditions raise the potential risk of epidemics. With the arrival of the rainy season, the situation is likely to worsen, as many of the tents are built in flood-prone areas.”
In addition to medical activities, MSF has set up pumping and water treatment systems and distributes more than 280,000 litres of water per day in five locations in the camp. But gaps remain when it comes to hygiene. “We constantly explain to families the necessity of washing hands with soap to prevent diseases, but some have not received a bar of soap since arriving. We foresee that distributions will take place, but we need other organizations to step up and help us improve the situation so that we can focus on medical needs,” concludes Cachope.
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