Polio Eradication in Niger

This was presented at the June 2004 UNICEF meeting dedicated to examining communication in the context of the final push to eradicate polio. The presentation provided an overview of the epidemiological history, current trends and risk factors in Niger, as well as the country-specific communication strategies.

The number of wild polio cases increased significantly in 2003 relative to 2002 and this trend is continuing in 2004. The communication environment includes a long common border with Nigeria, chronic weaknesses of systematic immunisation (rates of Diptheria/Pertussis/Tetanus (DPT3) are lower than 50% in many districts), late allocation of funds, planning at the district vs. operational level, and significant numbers of children missed (some with parents in the fields or markets) not all households visited by vaccinators, only 20% female vaccinators, training concerns, and inadequate supervision.

Strategies for 2004 include: advocacy (at the senior government level), organisational improvements (including improved training, better mapping/cartography of missed populations, cross-border meetings, memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with nomadic tribe chiefs to aid in vaccinator team recruitments, etc.), development of an evaluation system, and a focus on hard-to-reach populations and refusal prevention. The result to date is a steady increase in the number of vaccinated children from December 2003 to March 2004. A listing of remaining communication challenges is also provided.

Click here to download the full presentation as a PDF file.