The Neno District Health Office (DHO) says difficult terrain and religious beliefs among some parents could hamper its target of vaccinating 60,809 children under the age of 10 during the fourth round of the polio vaccination campaign, which runs from 11 to 14 August.
Neno DHO spokesperson Caroline Banda told Capital FM that the office is relying largely on a door-to-door strategy to reach its target, as schools, which are normally a key access point for vaccinating children, are currently closed for holidays.
She said the hilly and difficult-to-navigate terrain in much of Neno makes the door-to-door approach particularly challenging.
“We understand that with the terrain of Neno, it’s not easy to do it, but we are targeting to reach every house. We started with round zero of vaccination, and this is round four — polio variants are still circulating. So it was very important that we try to reach every child,” Banda said.
Apart from the terrain, Banda identified religious beliefs and vaccine fatigue among some parents as other challenges facing the campaign, saying some households have consistently declined vaccination on religious grounds.
“In Neno, there are other people who refuse vaccines due to religious beliefs, and it’s not only in Neno. We are also failing to reach out to some children with the vaccine because we have few Health Surveillance Assistants [HSAs],” she said.
To address these challenges, Banda said the DHO has established committees comprising security, religious and health officials to engage communities directly and address misinformation and resistance to vaccination.
She explained that the fourth round has been necessitated by the continued detection of new polio variants in the environment, making repeated vaccination campaigns necessary to protect children.
“Our target is under-10 children. We are giving vaccination to all the children falling in that age group, and we are targeting to reach out to 60,809 children. We know that we are expecting challenges because the schools are closed currently — we always target schools. We are likely to face challenges. We are doing everything possible to reach out to every child; we are going door-to-door,” Banda said.
She added that the campaign is also providing an opportunity to reach children who may have been missed during previous rounds.
“Polio is very dangerous, that’s why we want to reach every child. If there are other children that we failed to reach in our previous rounds, we want to reach out to them so that they are not affected,” Banda said.
Despite the challenges, the DHO says it remains committed to reaching every eligible child in the district before the campaign ends on 14 August, as part of efforts to prevent the spread of polio in Neno and Malawi.
