By Noel Tadegnon

LOME, Feb 11 (IPS) - Togo's latest vaccination campaign has ''failed'' to achieve its target because health officials never bothered to enlist the support of women, a government official says.

The official, who works for the Ministry of Health, and requested anonymity, says only 47 percent of children had been vaccinated between December and January, far less than the 95 percent of the anticipated goal. Health officials had hoped to vaccinate about 2.5 million children between the ages of nine months and 14 years old.

Crowds showed up during the first few days of the campaign, but afterwards, there were few takers. This is because the vaccination coincided with the New Year festivities.

''Women could have been effective contributors to the success of this programme, if only they were involved,'' says Kafui Kouwonou of the Women's International League for Rights and Democracy in Africa (WILDAF).

''Women should've been in the forefront of the campaign if they wanted it to succeed,'' says Odette Akomatsri, a midwife at the University Hospital in Lome, the capital of Togo.

''We should have been told about the vaccination campaign a little earlier,'' says Ida Teko, a mother, in Lome.

Aicha Toulassi, director of the Medical and Social Service Centre in Noukafou, a suburb of Lome, also acknowledged the lack of sensitivity around the campaign. ''It could have been a complete success if women were urged to bring their children for vaccinations,'' she says.

But - in a rare success story - teams of vaccinators sent to Toulassi's neighbourhood in Lome ''were able to vaccinate 41,053 children out of a total of 53,966.''

Vaccination teams were sent to inoculate children living within a 15-kilometre radius, in urban areas. Most of the health workers travelled to remote villages and hamlets.

Celestine Aidam, secretary general of the Lome-based Women's Democratic Development Action and Reflection Group (GFED), believes that the organisers failed to realise that the success of the operation depended on enlisting the support of women's groups.

''They didn't understand it, but let's hope that next time, they'll get it right,'' she says.

The campaign aimed to reduce measles morbidity rate by 90 percent, as well as measles mortality rate by 95 percent.

Measles is a contagious childhood disease.

''In four years' time, we would have protected our children from measles epidemic,'' says Dr. Agbi Tatagan, a paediatrician. ''To reach this goal, we need to vaccinate at least 95 percent of our children''.

''We should give all children a chance in order to reduce the number of those carrying the virus,'' says Charles Kondi Agba, Togolese minister of health.

Dr. Koubagnine Takpa, coordinator of the anti-measles campaign, says ''when the first symptoms of the disease appear in one child, it means that at least 100 more children around him are already infected''.

The first sign of the disease is when the skin erupts in spots and red blotches.

Measles is an extremely contagious viral disease. It can lead to serious complications and sometimes death in children. ''It can cause respiratory infections, diarrhoea, conjunctivitis and nasal discharges. The victim sometimes can succumb from dehydration,'' explains Agba.

The measles virus, like all others, is difficult to erase. Furthermore, the treatment of measles in traditional societies can sometimes be fraught with controversy and contradiction.

''Sometimes they forbid the child from drinking water, and you can imagine what that can lead to,'' says the Minister of health.

In 2000, some 6,000 cases of measles were recorded in Togo. Up to 100 of the children affected died, according to the ministry of health.

Experts urged the government to increase the rate of vaccination coverage. ''In 1990, it was 62 percent but in the year 2000, it was down to 43 percent,'' says Takpa.(END/IPS/AF/HE/TRA- FRA/NT/SZ/MN/02)