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Demand Creation for Polio Vaccine in Persistently Poor-Performing Communities of Northern Nigeria: 2013–2014

Monday, 7th of March 2016

Demand Creation for Polio Vaccine in Persistently Poor-Performing Communities of Northern Nigeria: 2013–2014

1. 1.        Charity Warigon1, 
2. 2.        Pascal Mkanda3, 
3. 3.        Ado Muhammed2, 
4. 4.        Andrew Estano2, 
5. 5.        Charles Korir1,
6. 6.        Samuel Bawa1, 
7. 7.        Emmanuel Gali1, 
8. 8.        Peter Nsubuga4, 
9. 9.        Tesfaya B. Erbeto1, 
10. 10.     George Gerlong1,
11. 11.     Richard Banda1, 
12. 12.     Yared G. Yehualashet1 and 
13. 13.     Rui G. Vaz1

+Author Affiliations

1. ¹World Health Organization, Country Representative Office
2. ²National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Abuja, Nigeria
3. ³World Health Organization, Regional Office for Africa, Brazzaville, Congo
4. ⁴Global Public Health Solutions, Atlanta, Georgia
5. Correspondence: C. Warigon, World Health Organization, Nigeria Country Office, Abuja, Nigeria (warigonc@who.int).

Abstract below; full text is at http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/02/03/infdis.jiv511.full.pdf+html

Background. Poliomyelitis remains a global threat despite availability of oral polio vaccine (OPV), proven to reduce the burden of the paralyzing disease. In Nigeria, children continue to miss the opportunity to be fully vaccinated, owing to factors such as unmet health needs and low uptake in security-compromised and underserved communities. We describe the implementation and evaluation of several activities to create demand for polio vaccination in persistently poor-performing local government areas (LGAs).

 

Methods. We assessed the impact of various polio-related interventions, to measure the contribution of demand creation activities in 77 LGAs at very high risk for polio, located across 10 states in northern Nigeria. Interventions included provision of commodities along with the polio vaccine.

 

Results. There was an increasing trend in the number of children reached by different demand creation interventions. A total of 4 819 847 children were vaccinated at health camps alone. There was a reduction in the number of wards in which >10% of children were missed by supplementary immunization activities due to noncompliance with vaccination recommendations, a rise in the proportion of children who received ≥4 OPV doses, and a decrease in the proportion of children who were underimmunized or unimmunized.

 

Conclusions. Demand creation interventions increased the uptake of polio vaccines in persistently poor-performing high-risk communities in northern Nigeria during September 2013–November 2014.

 

© 2016 World Health Organization; licensee Oxford Journals.

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