From August to November, Mercy-USA for Aid and Development (MUSA) mobile vaccination teams, with the support of UNICEF, inoculated 5,200 children under five and 6,750 pregnant women in the Jilib District. These women and children were inoculated against measles, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio and tuberculosis. When needed, they also received vitamin A, iron tablets and oral rehydration salt (ORS).
During June, MUSA vaccinated 3,700 children
in Jilib against measles. From November 1999 to February 2000, Mercy-USA
carried out two rounds of a WHO-supported polio eradication campaign in
the same region that immunized over 53,000 children. A similar eradication
program was undertaken in 1998 and immunized 50,000 children.
Mercy-USA operates a very successful tuberculosis (TB) control program in Somalia. This program consists of TB-prevention through community education and public awareness and TB-treatment through three centers caring for approximately 1,400 patients annually. The treatment centers are located in Mogadishu (south central part of country and opened in 1994), Bosasso (northeastern part and opened in 1995) and Jilib (southern part and opened in 1999). The Mogadishu and Bosasso centers have cure rates of about 90%, which exceeds the average international cure rate of around 80%.