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Polio is an acute viral disease that is still endemic in Pakistan. The polio vaccination program is facing many challenges that result in an increased number of new cases. The success of polio vaccination has been threatened in different parts of Pakistan. In the past, the immunization program was affected by different factors including insecurity, inducing mass migration and displacement, life threats to polio workers, and restricted access to the vulnerable population. Misconceptions and misunderstanding about the polio vaccine are a major obstacle in polio eradication which need to be erased by organized effects of increasing vaccine awareness.

This article explores the Polio Communication Network’s (PCN) contribution to the polio outbreak response in the Somali Region of Ethiopia from 2013 to 2015. The PCN strategies and innovations include the establishment of a communication network of experts, development of partnerships with locally trusted and influential groups, and capacity building of local structures. Results show PCN contribution through sustained high levels of community awareness of polio rounds and low rates of noncompliance with polio vaccination in line with the national indicator (< 1%). We argue that the context-sensitive approaches made significant gains in reaching traditionally missed, hard-to-reach, pastoral communities with polio information, improved communication capacity, and expertise, and contributed to the successful outbreak closure. The PCN experience in the Somali Region, one of Ethiopia’s lowest-performing regions for health indicators, provides important communication lessons for the long term relevant to polio ...

Since 2005, Pakistan has witnessed a net increase in polio, reaching a 15-year crest in 2014 when 306 cases were reported. Pakistan, along with Afghanistan, is one the remaining two polio-endemic countries. The numbers of cases reported in Pakistan in 2014 were far in excess of Afghanistan (28) and Nigeria (6). This paper focuses on the endemic militancy plaguing the country that has recently created grave obstacles for countrywide polio eradication. We argue that the relationship between polio and militancy in Pakistan has had two facets. First, polio vaccination efforts have become a casualty of militancy: over the last decade, polio vaccination was periodically banned in militant strongholds, large cohorts of children remained unvaccinated in remote frontier regions as vaccinators were unable to reach them, and anti-vaccination discourses in many parts of the country deterred others from vaccinating their children. The second relationship between the presence of polio in Pakistan and militancy ...

The global polio community is committed to ensuring that all countries currently using oral polio vaccination (OPV) add at least one dose of inactivated polio vaccination (IPV) to their immunization schedules. Globally, communication efforts have been at the forefront of polio eradication programs for more than 25 years. This article combines research from secondary and primary sources of information on country experiences in polio vaccination and from the polio vaccination program in Rwanda. Secondary data included a review of 20 global articles that describe and analyze communication efforts for polio eradication and highlight best practices in communication approaches to address polio. The primary research consisted of qualitative and participatory data gathered from various stakeholders in two rural sites in Rwanda regarding approaches that could be used to develop culturally sound communication strategies to introduce IPV into the current routine expanded program on immunization schedule. Findings fr...

Volunteer communication mobilizers (VCMs) were deployed in Nigeria to increase community awareness for polio vaccination. To understand whether VCMs’ knowledge and job-related characteristics were associated with performance, we conducted a cross-sectional survey in the Nassarawa and Ungogo Local Governance Areas (LGAs). We asked VCMs about the consequences of polio, preventive strategies, and health communication messages to assess knowledge. We considered VCMs’ performance satisfactory if they delivered more messages during their last visit, and knew the number of

A study of the factors influencing participation in national immunization days (NID) in Kumasi, Ghana was carried out between the April and June of 1999. Polio-immunization coverage during NID was assessed among children aged5 years;90% of these children had received polio vaccinations on both of the two previous NID. The mothers who participated most in the NID tended to be those who were better educated and Ghanaian. Mothers who were salaried workers participated fully in NID. Radio and television played a major role in public education about NID, whereas the attitude of health workers was a strong factor that prevented many mothers/caregivers from bringing their children to be immunized. The coverage of the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) was assessed in children aged 12-23 months; nearly 70% of these children were fully immunized. BCG had the highest coverage (97.0%) and measles the lowest (79%). Again, full coverage of the children of mothers who had been educated beyond primary level was higher than that of the other children (75.9% v. 65.2%), and coverage of the children of Ghanaian women was higher than that of the others (70.8%. v. 50.0%). Although the mothers/caregivers raised concerns about the costs of the routine immunizations, these charges apparently did not prevent them from taking their children to be immunized. NID complement the routine EPI-associated work in Ghana, increasing overall polio-immunization coverage. The results of this study will be used to improve the overall performance of immunization programmes, especially in the Kumasi metropolis. Hopefully, sustained, increased polio-immunization coverage will contribute positively towards polio eradication in Ghana.

This article reviews the literature concerning polio vaccination and uses that information to evaluate the World Health Organization's announced plans to end polio vaccination early in the 21st century. The safe elimination of polio vaccination would require the elimination of all polio cases, including paralytic cases, mild, nonparalytic cases, and vaccine-associated cases; proof that polio does not have any nonhuman alternative host; proof that no one alive can still shed the poliovirus; proof that no poliovirus persists in the environment; and proof that no live poliovirus, either the wild type or the vaccine strain, exists in medical or terrorist hands. Because it does not seem possible to ensure that ending vaccination against polio would be safe, and given the fact the polio is a terrible and untreatable disease, it would seem prudent to continue polio vaccination for the foreseeable future.