UNICEF FieldNotes » Susannah Masur, UNICEF USA http://fieldnotes.unicefusa.org Blogging on our child survival work In the field Thu, 16 May 2013 22:46:12 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 Eliminating maternal and neonatal tetanus in Sierra Leone http://fieldnotes.unicefusa.org/2011/12/eliminating-maternal-and-neonatal-tetanus-in-sierra-leone.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=eliminating-maternal-and-neonatal-tetanus-in-sierra-leone http://fieldnotes.unicefusa.org/2011/12/eliminating-maternal-and-neonatal-tetanus-in-sierra-leone.html#comments Tue, 13 Dec 2011 14:16:18 +0000 Susannah Masur, UNICEF USA http://fieldnotes.unicefusa.org/?p=2593 Sierra Leone is consistently ranked as one of the most dangerous places for a woman to be pregnant and a child to be born. Part of the reason is that so many deliveries in Sierra Leone are still done by unskilled birth attendants, mainly at home. However, a series of three tetanus vaccine doses administered to a woman is all that is needed to protect her and her newborns from the ravages of this terrible disease. We visited some of the country’s most remote districts to see how UNICEF and its partners are reaching the hardest to reach. We saw how the vaccinations are transported—often for hours on bicycle or motorbike over unpaved roads—to distant health units, watched vaccinators being trained, and witnessed women being immunized in clinics and schools. We also followed health workers door-to-door as they sought out women who had not yet been vaccinated and encouraged them to do so at their local clinics. Amazingly, this entire supply chain—vaccinations, syringes, safe storage, transportation, health worker training, and more—costs as little as US$1.80 per woman.

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