Abstract
This study was on effectiveness of communication methods in mobilizing people for polio immunization The total population for the study is 200 residents of Isale Osun. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made married men, married women, nursing mothers and youths were used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Immunization remains one of the most cost-effective public health strategies to reduce morbidity and mortality associated with vaccine preventable diseases. Routine Immunization (RI) has contributed immensely to significant reduction in mortality from these vaccine preventable diseases among children. Globally, it is estimated that about two to three million deaths occur yearly as a result of Vaccine Preventable Diseases (VPD) with approximately 1.5 million deaths among under-five children (Yahya, 2017).
The World Health Organization (WHO) established the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) in 1974, with the goal of ensuring full accessibility of Routine Immunization vaccines to all children. According to the EPI, a child should receive Bacillus Chalmette Guerin (BCG), three doses of Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) and Diphtheria Pertussis Tetanus (DPT), and measles vaccines by 12 months of age to ensure maximum protection against VPDs. Provision of these vaccines to the recommended ages and intervals will provide the children adequate protection from VPDs.
Polio is the common name for poliomyelitis, which comes from the Greek words for grey and marrow, referring to the spinal cord, and the suffix- ‘itis’, meaning inflammation. Poliomyelitis, shortened, became polio. It is an infectious disease caused by poliovirus. Poliovirus is usually spread from person to person through infected fecal matter entering the mouth, it is also spread by food infected in saliva. The infected people may spread the disease for up to six weeks even if no symptoms are present. The disease may be diagnosed by finding the virus in the faeces or detecting antibodies against it in the blood. The disease is preventable by polio vaccines. Polio vaccines are vaccines used to prevent poliomyelitis. There are basically two types which are commonly used, an inactivated poliovirus given by injection (IPV) and a weakened poliovirus given by mouth (Onyebuchi, 2016).
The two vaccines have eliminated polio from most part of the world, and drastically reduced the number of cases reported each year from an estimated 350,000 in 1988 to a drastic 33 in 2018. The world has come very close to eradicating polio through global eradication initiative, a programme which communication channels and interventions have played a consistently central role. The public health initiative is organized by WHO, Rotary international, the US centers for Disease Central and Prevention (CDC) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Mass media and information dissemination approaches used in immunization efforts worldwide have contributed to this success. However, polio does still exist, and Nigeria remains one of the top 3 countries in the world that have never stopped transmission of polio with Afghanistan and Pakistan filling the slot. Polio eradication efforts today face some of the greatest communication challenges they have ever encountered (Ogundele, 2019).
Many of these have received attention in national and global media, but they grow from discussions in homes and villages and amongst political, community, and religious leaders. Marginalized communities where WPV circulates are in dire need of basic services, with polio vaccination conducted whilst other issues are under addressed.
Looking at past events in Nigeria, the importance of communication for eradicating polio has been realized within the sociocultural, religious, and political contexts. These and other challenges require effective communication action that has been successful when applied in a planned and systematic way (The Communication Initiative (CI), 2008).
Polio eradication requires that nearly every child under age 5 receives multiple doses of vaccine, with some doses provided during routine immunization and the rest through supplemental immunization activity (SIA) campaigns. Failure to immunize children results in an immunity gap that enables wild poliovirus (WPV) to circulate, resulting in large human and financial costs. Communication strategies for polio are designed to support increased immunization coverage by identifying missed children, disaggregating reasons for refusals, identifying the most effective channels of information, and engaging effective influencers to overcome resistance (Roberts, 2016).
Beyond the traditional campaigns, stakeholders have introduced a series of innovative and impactful special interventions targeted at vaccinating more children potentially missed through the House‐to‐House campaigns. These strategies included: Hospital vaccinations, Market vaccination, Reaching Every Child (REC) and Reaching Every Settlements (RES), vaccinations in the IDP camps etc. The two strategies have resulted in more settlements being accessed and thus more children vaccinated in security compromised areas than the previous years. For instance, through RES alone, 251,000 and 60,000 children were reached.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has certified there has been no evidence of wild polio in Nigeria for more than a year and removed it from the list of polio-endemic countries. These are milestones both for Nigeria and for the global campaign to eradicate polio. Nonetheless, continued effort and vigilance will be critical over the next two years to declare the country and the rest of Africa completely free of the disease. Toward these ends, Nigeria has significantly increased polio immunity among its population over the past three years.
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
This study will evaluate the effectiveness of communication in mobilizing people for immunization. Over significant periods of time, the polio vaccination is usually announced house-to-house, asking people especially mothers who have a child snapped to their back in the public space such as markets, or announced by the town criers. There is a need to evaluate if this propagation method has been effective in disseminating the polio vaccination and related information.
As we move towards the final phase of polio eradication, one of the key challenges confronting the government, UNICEF and other partners involved in social mobilization is how to tackle resistance to Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) by mobilizing the unreached, underserved communities while still motivating the majority already reached to participate in polio vaccination (Obregon, 2009).
It is therefore necessary to critically assess the current communication methods employed and to evaluate the effectiveness thereof.
1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The objective of the Polio Immunization is to eradicate the disease from every citizens of every class. However, there is the challenge of educating the citizens and getting them to get their children vaccinated. The fundamental way to carry out these tasks is through effective communication.
The study objective is to evaluate current methods used in disseminating information about Polio immunization.
- To find out the level of awareness about polio vaccine among people of Isale Osun.
- To identify the communication channels through which the people of Isale Osun receive information about polio vaccine.
- To investigate the effectiveness of the communication channels on the behavior of Isale Osun people to polio vaccine administrations.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The following research questions would be put in focus in the course of this report.
- What are the common communication techniques and models employed in promoting programs or announcements regarding the polio vaccine?
- How effective are these communication methods in achieving their stated aim?
- What are the variables that hinder the success of polio vaccine in the study area?
- What are the contributions of mass communication methods in the acceptance of the polio vaccine?
- How can the current level of awareness be enhanced using mass communication methods to increase the behaviour of the people of isale osun on polio vaccine uptake?
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
This study aims to know how effective the communication method used in creating awareness for polio immunization, Survey and also Focused groups discussions will be used in other to get a well detailed result. Using the health belief model which has always been a guide to explain the people’s health behavior and the project would also give an insight on which communication method has been able to communicate effectively to the people of Isale Osun whenever the polio immunisation is on going and the location where they are supposed to take their children to get vaccinated
1.6 SCOPE OF STUDY
The scope of this study would be based on the people of Osun State, and using the people of Isale Osun as my population sample it will provide more details on communication method that is used in creating awareness on polio vaccination presently, and among all the channels that are used to announce the polio vaccine, there would be one the people of Isale osun find useful which means there should be flexibility deciding the best way of communication as this might be subjective to each community.
1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS
- Routine Immunization (RI) is the sustainable, reliable and timely interaction between the vaccine, those who deliver it and those who receive it to ensure every person is fully immunized against vaccine-preventable diseases
- Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) is the predominant vaccine used in the fight to eradicate polio which contains a weakened poliovirus given orally (by mouth).
- Diphtheria Pertussis Tetanus (DPT) is a class of combination vaccines against three infectious diseases in humans: diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus.
- Wild Poliovirus (WPV) is the causative agent of the disease known as polio (also known as poliomyelitis),
- Vaccine Preventable Diseases (VPD) are infectious diseases for which an effective preventive vaccine exists.
REFERENCES
1.Musa, A. (2015). Polio Immunization Social Norms in Kano State, Nigeria: Implications for Designing Polio Immunization Information and Communication Programs for Routine Immunization Services. Global Health Communication, 1(1), 21-31. doi: 10.1080/23762004.2016.1161419
2.Ogundele, O. (2019). Insurgency in Northern Nigeria: Implication for Polio Eradication in Nigeria. Sudan Journal Of Medical Sciences. doi: 10.18502/sjms.v14i4.5903
- Onyebuchi, E. (2016). Eradicating Polio Menace in Nigeria. Journal Of Human Virology & Retrovirology, 4(1). doi: 10.15406/jhvrv.2016.04.00123
- Roberts, L. (2016). Nigeria outbreak forces rethink of polio strategies. Science. doi: 10.1126/science.aah7265
- Yahya, M. (2017). Polio vaccines-“no thank you!” barriers to polio eradication in Northern Nigeria. African Affairs, 106(423), 185-204. doi: 10.1093/afraf/adm016
- Hamborsky J, Kroger A, Wolfe C, eds. (2015) , “Poliomyelitis”, Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccines-Preventable diseases (The Pink Book) (13th ed.), Washington DC: Public health Foundation, (chapter 18).
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