Over the past weeks, Médecins Sans Frontières or MSF supported the nomadic populations living in Kong Kong cattle camp of Pibor with vaccinations, nutritional screenings and the distribution of mosquito nets.
The organization says it is supporting mostly cattle herders, migrating during the dry season in search of grazing pastures and water.
‘One of the challenges we have is that we work with a nomadic population but our health facilities are fixed,’ says Amandine Colin, MSF Field Coordinator in Pibor.
With heavy rains, the only possibility to move around in the area will be by helicopter and by boat, as roads will be impassable’, he adds.
MSF explains that from end of March to early April, over 320 girls and women benefitted from tetanus vaccination and January to April, it treated 196 suspected measles cases at its clinic in town.
The organization held nutritional screening for around 400 children under six years old, and distributed 638 mosquito nets in preparation of the malaria season.
MSF also vaccinated 800 children aged up to fifteen years old in response to a measles outbreak declared in the area in January in KongKong villages.
In Pibor town, the organisation vaccinated 5,070 children against measles at the beginning of February.