Medicina Comunitária e Educação em Saúde

Abstrato

Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Stakeholders Towards Immunization in Borno State, Nigeria: A Qualitative Approach

Babatunji A Omotara, Tamunoibuomi F Okujagu, Samuel O Etatuvie, Omeiza Beida and Eric Gbodossou

Background: Vaccine preventable diseases remain one of the major causes of illnesses and deaths among children in Nigeria and this country is one of the few remaining countries in the world where polio is still endemic. Though routine immunization coverage has improved since 2003, Nigeria’s coverage is still one of the lowest in the world. Nigeria accounts for half of the deaths from Measles in Africa, the highest prevalence of circulating wild poliovirus in the world, and the country is among the ten countries in the world with vaccine coverage rates below 50 percent, having been persistently below 40 percent since 1997. Borno state has one of the lowest coverage in the country. The objective of the study was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of stakeholders in Borno state towards immunization with the view of intervening to improve acceptance.
Method: Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were used to collect information from the various stakeholders in 18 selected Local Government Areas of Borno representing both rural and urban areas.
Result: All stakeholders were aware of immunization and its benefits as well as the routes and schedule of administration. Different groups have different traditional alternatives to immunization. Majority indicated that they accept immunization and allow their children to receive it. However, lack of adequate information about logistics and time of immunization programme, inadequate involvement of traditional and religious leaders and poor attitude of health workers were reasons for not fully supporting immunization program in some communities. Mothers looked forward to incentives for bringing their children for immunization in terms of soap and complimentary health care services.
Conclusion: Advocacy through involvement of traditional, religious leaders and community leaders in the planning and implementation of immunization exercise should be intensified in all communities. The integration of traditional medical practitioners is also deemed important.