Public health and veterinary vaccination services often fail to achieve sufficient coverages in Africa’s remote rural settings due to financial, logistical and service delivery constraints. In 2000, the prevalence of fully immunized nomadic pastoralist children and women in Chadian Chari-Baguirmi and Kanem was zero. In the same nomadic camps, however, the livestock was compulsorily vaccinated by circulating veterinary teams. During a stakeholder workshop in 1999, the Chadian Ministries of Health and of Livestock Production (hosting the veterinary services), together with the pastoralist communities, recommended the testing of the feasibility of joint human and livestock vaccination campaigns to make best use of visits by professionals in nomadic communities. Since 2000, a project of the Swiss Tropical Institute supported the implementation of several joint campaigns and played a facilitating role in harmonising the timing of activities of the public health and veterinary services. The joint campaigns were organized in consultation with the local health and veterinary personnel, and made use of existing personnel and infrastructure (cold chain and transportation means). Sharing of transport logistics and equipment between the public health and veterinary sectors reduced total costs. In addition, joint human and animal health service delivery is adapted to and highly valued by hard-to-reach pastoralists. In the intervention zones, for the first time approx. 10% of mobile pastoralist children (0 – 11 months) were fully immunized annually. A key statement repeatedly made by parents was, ‘Measles and whooping-cough have disappeared among pastoralists, although it remains at the market-sites we visit. And when we attend markets, we no longer contaminate our camps with these diseases’. By optimizing the use of limited logistical and human resources, public health and veterinary services both become more effective, especially at the district level.


Bechir M, Schelling E, Wyss K, Daugla DM, Daoud S, Tanner M et al. 2004; Approche novatrice des vaccinations en santé publique et en médecine vétérinaire chez les pasteurs nomades au Tchad: expériences et coûts. Médecine Tropicale, 64[5]:497-502.

Schelling E, Bechir M, Ahmed MA, Wyss K, Randolph TF, Zinsstag J. 2007; Human and animal vaccination delivery to remote nomadic families, Chad. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 13[3]:373-379.

Dr. Esther Schelling

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The photos show Polio vaccination of a nomadic child in Chad. At the same time, the camp’s livestock is vaccinated by veterinarians.