Antananarivo – Quality assurance surveyor Anja Mandimbisoa arrives at a random lot numerically selected, throws her pen in the air, and whichever house it is pointing at when it lands is the next on her evaluation list. With their consent, she then sits down with the family to verify whether the children in the household have the mark on their little fingers confirming they have been vaccinated against polio.
“The fact that it is a random selection provides a true picture of immunization coverage at the district level,” explains Mandimbisoa, one of 16 external Lot Quality Assurance Sampling (LQAS) surveyors trained by World Health Organization (WHO) in Analamanga region, Madagascar, to identify any missed children.
As the country concludes its third round of polio vaccinations this year, the response reflects that the job to end polio does not end with the conclusion of a vaccination round. Instead, it is the actions between rounds that make all the difference.
