Last-mile delivery increases vaccine uptake in Sierra Leone.

ABSTRACT: Less than 30% of people in Africa received a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine even 18 months after vaccine development¹. Here, motivated by the observation that residents of remote, rural areas of Sierra Leone faced severe access difficulties², we conducted an intervention with last-mile delivery of doses and health professionals to the most inaccessible areas, along with community mobilization. A cluster randomized controlled trial in 150 communities showed that this intervention with mobile vaccination teams increased the immunization rate by about 26 percentage points within 48-72 h. Moreover, auxiliary populations visited our community vaccination points, which more than doubled the number of inoculations administered. The additional people vaccinated per intervention

SUBMITTER: Meriggi NF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10954551 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature