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How do you protect millions of people from a deadly disease in the space of a few weeks?
That has been the challenge after a yellow fever outbreak has killed more than 400 people in Angola and neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.
Photographer Tommy Trenchard has been following the 10-day campaign in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa.
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Tommy Trenchard/Save the Children
Eight-year-old Yungi was among the first to receive the vaccination at one of the hundreds of stations set up across the city.
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Tommy Trenchard/Save the Children
A worldwide shortage of the vaccine, which takes up to 18 months to produce, has forced those behind the campaign to improvise…
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Tommy Trenchard/Save the Children
…so nurses have been giving people one-fifth doses of the vaccine. This smaller dose still provides protection from yellow fever for a year, but not for life, as with a full dose. This emergency approach is backed by the World Health Organization.
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Tommy Trenchard/Save the Children
Vaccination cards are handed out documenting that people have received the smaller dose, so that they can receive the full one when supplies are replenished.
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Tommy Trenchard/Save the Children
With limited supplies of yellow fever vaccine, every vial is precious. They have to be handled with care and kept cold at all times, a challenge in a country where daytime temperatures regularly exceed 30C.
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Tommy Trenchard/Save the Children
Residents of Kinshasa, like Barmany and her daughter Malux, have received the vaccine free as part of the government-funded programme.
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Tommy Trenchard/Save the Children
In Binza Ozone, a suburb of Kinshasa with a population of around 350,000 people, vaccines are taken from a central storage point to more than 100 vaccination sites spread across the community.
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Tommy Trenchard/Save the Children
They are transported in 4×4 vehicles to distribution centres. The city, which has a population of more than 10 million, lacks proper sanitation and is filled with puddles of standing water – the perfect breeding ground for the mosquitoes that spread yellow fever.
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Tommy Trenchard/Save the Children
Hundreds of thousands of people have been heading to vaccination sites in Kinshasa, joining the early-morning queues. Charity Save the Children says it reached more than 200,000 people in one suburb of Kinshasa in the space of four days.
Images courtesy of Tommy Trenchard/Save the Children
