Hello, I’m Kasongo Mwema Stanley, Chief of Staff at the Ministry of Health, Haut-Lomami Province. Together with Arthur-Nils Dufayard, Senior Project Manager at Acasus, I am delighted to share three things that helped us transform measles protection for children in our southeastern provinces – Haut-Lomami, Haut-Katanga, and Tanganyika.
In late 2025, the Ministry of Health strengthened its targeted vaccination drives, known as Periodic Intensifications of Routine Immunisation (PIRIs). Working with partners to reach children missed by clinics, we launched an enhanced model called PIRI+, while control areas continued regular PIRI activities.
To protect the most lives, we targeted areas facing active measles outbreaks and low vaccination coverage. Three week-long drives across 430 health areas in the three provinces ensured:
- 96% of targeted communities were reached with measles vaccines.
- 210,000 children received a total of 500,000 vaccine doses, protecting them against measles, polio, diphtheria, and other diseases.
- 40,400 children who had never received a single vaccine were protected for the first time.
- 91,100 children who had fallen behind on their schedules were caught up.
An independent evaluation conducted by the Kinshasa School of Public Health and UCLA comparing PIRI+ intervention areas against PIRI control zones in Haut-Lomami demonstrated a dramatic turnaround:
- First-dose measles coverage: Achieved a 27.1 percentage point net increase compared to control zones (where coverage dropped sharply by 19.9 percentage points – from 84.7% to 64.8% – while PIRI+ areas rose from 63.2% to 70.4%).
- Second-dose measles coverage: Increased from 31.8% to 46.5% in PIRI+ areas, while dropping from 47.9% to 39.2% in control areas.
- Full vaccination coverage (routine schedule completion): Showed a dramatic 42 percentage point net increase over control zones, with intervention areas rising from 54% to 59.1% (+5.1 percentage points) while control areas plummeted from 80.6% to 43.7% (–36.9 percentage points).
