Routine community-based vitamin A supplementation compared to the Mass campaign among 6-59-months old’s children in two health districts, Far North Cameroon

Résumé

Introduction: Vitamin A supplementation (VAS) is one of the most cost-effective interventions with the greatest impact in
reducing child mortality. Mass campaigns are costly, donor-driven, and heavily dependent on funding for mass immunization
campaigns. We analyzed routine community-based VAS (rVAS) coverage using the pilot approach of strengthening
community participation versus the mass campaign strategy during the “Mother and Child Health and Nutrition Action Week”
(MCHNAW).
Methods: This was a descriptive study among from children under five prospectively followed up in a VAS program in Kaele
and Guidiguis health districts. We performed a descriptive analysis of data from routine VAS program after capacity building
of Community Health Workers (CHW) and compared them with data from the MCHNAW in the period October 2019 and
May 2020. Data were collected in the health facilities from the registers to ODK Kobocollect and analyzed by Microsoft
Excel 2010.
Results: rVAS showed 95.29% (92.49% Kaele; 98.49% Guidiguis) coverage for children aged 6-11 months (first dose). And
98.29% (97.71% Kaele & 98.77% Guidiguis) coverage for children aged 12-59 months (2nd dose). In comparison, VAS
coverage in the mass campaign was lower with 68.46% (61.80% Kaele 72.42% Guidiguis) for 6-11 months and 62.57%
(61.27% Kaele & 63.28% Guidiguis) for 12-59 months. These coverages are also lower, compared to the national target
coverage (80%). rVAS showed high coverage (>92%) compared to Mass campaign and national target among 6–59-months
age children in both health district in the far North Cameroon. However, this study has not analyzed the cost of both strategies
of VAS.
Conclusion: Reinforce the routine community-based VAS showed the best coverage to reach children under-five compared
to the mass campaign VAS. However, there is need more cost-effectiveness studies to confirm whether strengthening
community-based VAS could be a better practice versus mass campaign

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