The Ripple Effects of Early Immunisation

International Medical Corps has been providing medical care to communities around the world since 1984. Much of our work involves treating illness and responding to outbreaks of disease, which is why we focus on preventing people from ever getting sick in the first place.

Vaccinating babies and young children against a range of illnesses can prevent the spread of infectious disease and create safer, healthier communities. That’s why our teams in Cameroon—where we’ve worked since 2008—have been working in health facilities and communities to vaccinate children from birth to 22 months of age.

Christine works with Bouba Yougouda, who is responsible for immunisation in the Domayo Djarma health area, to ensure that vaccines are carefully logged. Among other variables, they track administered doses, expiration dates and the quantities needed for the next month’s round of immunisation activities.

Our Community-Directed Interventions Officer, Christine Yanoune, unpacks vaccines stored at the Maroua 1 health district cold-chain storage system, located in the Far North region of Cameroon. Clinicians travel to this location to pick up allotted vaccines for rural health centres throughout the health district.

Staff members make sure that vaccine syringes and other supplies are kept clean and sterile.

Our teams help to provide multiple types of vaccines, including oral polio vaccine, malaria vaccine and pentavalent vaccine (a combined 5-in-1 vaccine that protects children from diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenza type B). When administered together, these vaccines form the bulk of infant and early-childhood immunization programmes worldwide.

Our last-mile strategy focuses on supporting health districts and their local facilities, ensuring that children living in conflict-affected, remote or hard-to-reach places can benefit from vaccination. We help to ensure that vaccines are stored safely at the regional level, and support the transportation of vaccines to local health facilities, whether by car, motorbike or boat. We also plan and facilitate several vaccination events each month, coordinating with local healthcare workers to get vaccines to the people who need them.

Bouba carries a small cooler filled with vaccine vials and medical supplies.

Traveling to rural areas can be a long and bumpy ride, so Bouba straps the supplies securely to his motorbike.

Once the vaccines are secure, Bouba travels from the health district offices to the Domayo Djarma health area, where International Medical Corps staff members support vaccination activities at facilities and in the community.

Though the work is important, it is not easy. In many corners of the country, conflict and armed groups create danger for health workers and patients alike. Some parts of Cameroon are prone to regular flooding.

An aerial view of Lahai, a settlement area in the Far North region of Cameroon. The boats are preparing to deliver vaccines to remote areas of Cameroon.

Due to seasonal flooding, Lahai community members must sometimes travel by boat to reach the nearest health centre for routine vaccinations.

Despite these challenges, our teams are dedicated to making sure that vaccines get to those who need them, no matter where they are. In 2025, the facilities we support provided more than 5,000 children under 1 with the pentavalent vaccine and nearly 4,400 with the measles vaccine.

Spreading the Word

Community health workers (CHWs) are crucial to vaccination because they know the community and can more easily gain the trust of their neighbours. In many villages in Cameroon, CHWs go door to door to talk about the importance of childhood vaccination and to tell parents and guardians how to get to the nearest clinic or vaccination event. CHWs sometimes even walk through the streets broadcasting their messages through a megaphone.

Foumbi is a CHW who educates community members about local vaccination activities. His commitment to this work helps protect infants, children and families from infectious diseases.

Foumbi travels on foot to the village of Ngassa Oura Malmanga to provide vaccine education door to door and to groups of community members. He carries a megaphone to alert the community to his presence.

After speaking to members of a household, Foumbi documents if a child has missed a vaccine, and then works to arrange for the family to travel to the nearest health facility to receive immunisations.

As part of our work to vaccinate infants and toddlers in Cameroon, we hold frequent—and well-attended—immunisation events where parents can bring their young children to receive vaccines appropriate to their age and needs.

Community health work is a critical component of creating trust and space for dialogue among community members, and is especially important in combatting distrust of vaccines and misinformation about how vaccines work.

Using education materials with graphics and illustrations, Foumbi speaks to community members about the importance of early immunisation and its role in public health.

Maimouna, a mother living in the village of Djalingo, learned about a vaccination campaign at Dogba Health Center from Foumbi, a CHW who took to the streets with a megaphone to spread the word. After doing her household chores and washing her young son, Maimouna took the baby to the health centre, where she listened to an education session on the importance of vaccination. After her baby was vaccinated, Maimouna told us how happy she was with the services we had provided.

On the day of the infant vaccination campaign, Maimouna prepares to depart her home in Djalingo village.

Maimouna makes sure to bring her son’s vaccination record with her to the clinic.

An International Medical Corps health worker registers Maimouna and her son.

A health facility nurse administers a vaccine in the thigh, the preferred site for infant intramuscular vaccinations.

In addition to vaccinating young children, International Medical Corps also helps health personnel—both at the district level and facility level—to improve the work they do involving vaccine data, monitoring, planning and reporting. And when there are outbreaks of infectious disease, we support health facilities with investigation, disease surveillance and contact tracing.

Upon arriving at the health centre, mothers attend a health education session on the importance of early immunisation.

A mother stands with her recently vaccinated son.

Cameroon is subject to regular outbreaks of infectious disease. Vaccinating communities’ youngest members greatly reduces the risk of outbreaks—as well as the strain on already-fragile health systems in the country. Read more about our work in Cameroon.