#COVID19 vaccination : Extending services to patients’ families and neighborhoods

Public health officials in Cameroon and Doctors Without Borders has launched a new approach to improving #COVID19 vaccination in the country.

Known as CATI ( Case Area Targeted Intervention ) was jointly launched at the Djoungolo hospital in Yaoundé on  Monday, November 8 by Doctors Without Borders and the Ministry of Public Health.

CATI targets families  and neighborhoods of positive cases #COVID19 admitted at the Djoungolo hospital.

According to Dr Augustin Kitembo, Medical Officer at Doctors Without Borders, 99% of patients admitted at the hospital are not vaccinated. He says CATI is a strategy to encourage families of such patients to take the #COVID19 vaccine.  “When someone is positive, it changes opinions on the disease. Many people accept the vaccine because they see the damage #COVID19 has caused to the family. That is one reason why we want to use this Strategy to boost vaccination in Cameroon”.

How will CATI be executed ?

According to Public Health experts,   teams will visit homes of COVID19 positive patients admitted at the Djoungolo hospital in Yaoundé from the 5th day of admission to encourage family members to take the vaccine. The team will be comprised of an encoder, vaccinator, laboratory technician, health educator .

The exercise includes three steps ;

  1. Geolocating the homes of hospitalized patients. Teams will use tablets to locate their homes, neighborhoods of all patients hospitalized at the hospital.
  2. Reaching out to  families of patients admittedd, and giving them tips on how to reach health care givers in case of a health emergency
  3. Educating families of positive patients, and running COVID19 tests. Negative cases will be encouraged to take the vaccine while positive cases will either be followed up at home or admitted in the Djoungolo hospital.Those who  are positive they will be followed up at home. 

The first teams visited the families of some patients admitted at the Djoungolo hospital on in Yaoundé on November 8. CAT will be implemented for three months , after which the approach will be evaluated. The approach  will be implemented  in our parts of Cameroon, progressively.

Doctors Without Boarders has been actively involved in the fight against the pandemic in Cameroon, in collaboration with the Public Health Ministry. Health care for COVID19 patients in the Djoungolo hospital is entirely managed by the international humanitarian non-governmental health association.

Kathy Neba Sina

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