Lessons from Kaduna: improving immunisation coverage through local emergency coordination centres

Kano State in Nigeria has implemented a strategy to increase the likelihood of children receiving necessary vaccinations to reduce cases of polio. The strategy, which included enhanced training on administering the vaccinations, taking the vaccines directly to homes and "collaboration between policy makers and traditional leaders," has resulted in no cases of polio for the last five years.

Egypt has made significant strides in eliminating hepatitis C from the country by implementing an approach that combines both affordable drug access and an effort to get the drugs to those in need. Supported by the government, the country "debuted an online portal for those with the disease to register for treatment," followed by a nationwide screening program.

Teams of Community Direct Distributors (CDD) are leading drug distribution campaigns to prevent and eliminate neglected tropical diseases in hard-to-reach, rural areas. These CDDs are members of the community they serve and are trained to educate the locals on disease prevention and administer the drugs themselves. With the CDDs’ help, several states have already eliminated some diseases and greatly reduced the spread of others.

Three African countries are successfully reducing the transmission of HIV through treatment and education, surpassing many developed countries in reducing cases. Although each is unique, the key lessons include using comprehensive, community-based approaches and strategies that involve collective action.

Liberia's community health worker program taps residents of rural areas to receive training in disease surveillance and basic health care, creating a network of on-the-ground professionals to report potential outbreaks before they begin to spread. The program has contributed to more rapid treatment of malaria cases, with 71 percent of cases treated within 24 hours in 2021, and has significantly increased the number of rural residents with access to care.

With rapid diagnostic tests, Nigerians with malaria symptoms can get a quicker diagnosis at a lower cost, especially in regions where lab-based testing is not available. The tests have made it easier to get a diagnosis in places where malaria is prevalent, but many Nigerians still don't know the tests are an option or choose to self-medicate due to lack of trust in the local health system.

Indigenous Australians have fared far better than tribal regions in other parts of the world during the coronavirus pandemic due to a collaborative and proactive health campaign between health experts and aboriginal leaders. According to an Australian epidemiologist specializing in public health, “This is a most amazing response to the pandemic from a community that is so marginalized. This is probably the best evidence we have that if you put Aboriginal people in charge, then you get better outcomes.”

As coronavirus spread throughout the White Mountain Apache tribe in Arizona residents on the reservation turned to contact tracing – not to slow the spread, but to identify those who were high risk and may be infected with the virus, before they became too ill to recover. This strategy focused on testing blood oxygen levels and has resulted in a far lower mortality rate among the tribe as compared to the state. Now, researchers think it could serve as a model for other "hard-to-reach" communities.

Several distilleries across the U.S. are shifting gears from producing beer to instead producing hand sanitizer to play a part in addressing the coronavirus pandemic. Combatting the shortage of the product, while also promoting better hygiene, distilleries are experimenting with recipes based on federal and World Health Organization guidelines and giving the product to patrons as well as donating to charities.

Haiti has gone an entire year without any new reported cases of cholera, which is a significant accomplishment for the country that once faced 800,000 cases of the infectious disease. Although it's too soon to declare the country cholera-free, Haiti's success thus far is largely due to collective efforts to increase education and implement preventative measures such as pop-up clinics and rapid response teams.