The second round of vaccination for Syrian children is ready for implementation through fixed sites and mobile teams across selected areas, helping millions of children have more robust health and a better quality of life.
“The Big Catch-Up initiative in Syria is not only an opportunity to immunize and protect all children up to 5 years old, including zero dose children, but is also aimed at strengthening routine immunization from planning, service delivery and to monitoring systems,” explains Véronique Maeva Fages, the Senior Country Manager for Syria at Gavi.
Launched in April 2023, the Big Catch-Up addressed the decline in childhood vaccination rates due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to overburdened health systems and disrupted access to medical care. The initial phase occurred in April 2024, and the second phase is set to happen in October 2024. During the first round, the vaccination status of more than 1.8 million children was screened, and zero-dose and unvaccinated children were vaccinated with the needed vaccines. Plus, 1.8 million received the Polio vaccine, and 1 million received Vitamin A, regardless of their vaccination status. This time, some 2 million children under the age of 5 will be screened, and more than 300,000 should be vaccinated with different childhood vaccines. Over 750,000 health workers will be deployed across selected areas. A measles campaign will also be conducted in 68 priority districts where kids will receive the measles-rubella / measles-mumps-rubella vaccines, regardless of their vaccination status.
