The first 30 days of COVID-19 vaccination in Cameroon: achievements, challenges, and lessons learned.

Content Provider	Europe PMC
Author	Amani, Adidja Djossaya, Dove Njoh, Andreas Ateke Fouda, Andre Arsene Bita Ndoula, Shalom Abba-kabir, Haamit Mahammat Mossus, Tatiana Nguefack-Tsague, Georges Kamgno, Joseph
Copyright Year	2022
Abstract	IntroductionCameroon's national vaccination campaign was launched on April 12, 2021, amid a nationwide outbreak of COVID-19 with two types of vaccines. This study provides preliminary evidence to assess early outputs of the COVID-19 vaccination response strategy implementation.Methodsa cross-sectional study was conducted from April 12, 2021, to May 11, 2021, and data on COVID-19 vaccination were reviewed from the Ministry of Public Health database. Descriptive statistical analyses were conducted.Resultsthirty days after the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines, just about five percent of the target population was vaccinated. Women represented one-third of the people vaccinated regardless of age and health conditions. Although AEFI reported were minor and scanty with both vaccines, most of the vaccinated did not come back for their second dose. There was a need to build confidence among eligible beneficiaries to expand the benefits of vaccination to control the current pandemic.Conclusionthe country was still far below the target, which was worrisome given that vaccine uptake was slow. Also, 391 200 doses of the Covishield were at risk of expiration in August 2021. This study offers insights into those early efforts contributing to significant discussions about the approaches to improve service delivery and vaccine uptake.
Journal	The Pan African Medical Journal
Volume Number	41
PubMed Central reference number	PMC9146659
PubMed reference number	35685114
e-ISSN	19378688
DOI	10.11604/pamj.2022.41.201.30218
Language	English
Publisher	The African Field Epidemiology Network
Publisher Date	2022-03-14
Access Restriction	Open
Rights License	The Pan African Medical Journal (ISSN: 1937-8688). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Copyright: Adidja Amani et al.
Subject Keyword	COVID-19 vaccines achievements challenges lessons learned Cameroon
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Medicine