Madang starts vaccine drive for rural children

CHILDREN under the age of five in the Sengapi, Dusin and Gebrau communities in Madang will be vaccinated, an official says.
Officer-in-charge of Sengapi health centre Isaac Kauka said this after health workers from the Madang provincial health authority (MPHA) flew there to carry out the campaign in these hard-to-reach communities last month.
“We will vaccinate the children under five years from Sengapi, Dusin, Gebrau and all surrounding communities. There is no road access and the only hope was to fly there on an MAF plane,” Kauka explained.
Kauka said a walk from Sengapi to Dusin would take seven to eight hours.
“But with MAF, the PHA agents were dropped there after a 10-minute flight,” he said.
“What a difference it makes for the people to travel via MAF, especially when carrying critical cargo like vaccines which needed to be kept cool and used within a certain time frame.”
Missionary Aviation Fellowship (MAF) flew the health workers and boxes of vaccines to these hard to reach communities.
The week before, a MAF aircraft flew three charters from Port Moresby to Madang, Telefomin and Mt Hagen, funded through New Zealand Aid to help with some last-minute emergency distribution runs.
Vaccine cool boxes were handed over to the provincial health authorities for Madang, West Sepik and Southern Highlands at MAF’s receiving bases.
MAF was pleased to have supported the vaccination campaign of the PNG government.
MAF acknowledged the New Zealand High Commission in Port Moresby for being the sponsor for the flights, under a partnership with the organisation to improve the health of the people in remote communities.