Vaccination is the single highest-return thing a parent does for a child, and it is free at public health facilities in Cameroon. The schedule below follows the national programme. Confirm the exact dates on your child’s card at the health centre, because the programme is updated from time to time.
Roughly when
- At birth: BCG (against severe tuberculosis) and the first polio drops.
- 6 weeks: pentavalent 1, pneumococcal 1, polio, rotavirus 1.
- 10 weeks: pentavalent 2, pneumococcal 2, polio, rotavirus 2.
- 14 weeks: pentavalent 3, pneumococcal 3, polio, and the injectable polio dose.
- 9 months: measles-rubella 1, and yellow fever.
- 15 to 18 months: measles-rubella 2.
- Girls, 9 years: HPV, which prevents cervical cancer later.
What the pentavalent covers
One injection against five: diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae type b, a cause of meningitis and pneumonia in small children.
If you miss a dose
Go anyway. The course is picked up from where it stopped; it is not restarted. There is no dose so late that it stops being worth having. Take the card.
Normal after a vaccination
- Mild fever for a day or two, a sore or slightly swollen spot, fussiness, sleeping more.
- A small sore at the BCG site that heals into a scar over weeks. That is expected.
- Give fluids, keep feeding, and use paracetamol at the dose for the child’s weight if needed.
Go back to the health centre if
- A fit or convulsion.
- Difficulty breathing, or swelling of the face or mouth.
- A high fever that will not come down, or fever beyond three days.
- The child is floppy, unresponsive, or crying non-stop for hours.
Keep the card
The vaccination card is the only record. It is asked for at school enrolment and at every clinic visit. Photograph it, keep the photograph, and store the card somewhere dry and fixed.
