Immunization

A digital lifeline for Somalia’s children: Inside Mogadishu’s experiment with an electronic immunization register On a bright morning in Kahda, a district on the southern edge of Mogadishu, a young mother stands at the immunization desk without the small, creased card that once governed her child’s medical future. For years, that paper card—easily misplaced during eviction, flood or displacement—was the only proof a child had been vaccinated. When it disappeared, health workers guessed which doses had been given, repeated…

On a bright morning in Kahda, a fast-growing district on the southern edge of Mogadishu, a young mother steps to the immunization desk without the small, creased card that once governed her child’s medical future. Nurse Naima Muse turns from a crying toddler, taps a number into a desktop computer and summons the child’s vaccination record in seconds. “Before, if a mother lost the card, we had nothing,” she says. “Now, we just search.” The change is powered by Somalia’s Electronic Immunization Register, or EIR, a digital…

Dr. Ubah Farah, a fervent advocate for UNICEF Somalia, underscored the profound impact of this national endeavor to eliminate polio. "This initiative is a lifeline for vaccinating children against polio," Farah expressed. She emphasized that such initiatives are pivotal in public health, aiming to wipe out the poliovirus and stymie its spread. The campaign kicked off in central and southern Somalia, with plans to gradually include the semiautonomous state of Northeastern State and the self-declared region of Somaliland.…