Mass Vaccination Campaigns: Reaching the Zero-Dose Child

Simon Mutembo of the Macha Research Trust in Zambia will develop a method to identify and map children who have never received vaccinations so that they can be targeted during mass vaccination campaigns. Many of these children live in remote areas and are missed by population estimates. Their method combines field work by community health workers with spatial intelligence using a geospatial application on smart phones to develop geographical maps of vaccination coverage at the household level. Households with low or no vaccinations can then be targeted directly by campaign health workers. They will test their approach using a non-randomized controlled before and after study associated with planned measles and rubella mass vaccination campaigns in 14 areas in Zambia. Their method will also provide a more reliable measure of vaccination coverage.