African Health Monitor: Countdown...to a Polio-free World

This magazine of the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Africa (Volume 3, Number 1) covers the following topics (selected communication-related elements are highlighted below):

• The final assault on polio - "What are the roles of laboratories, logistics, social mobilization and communication in the effort to eradicate polio?"
• Overview of the polio situation in the African Region - During supplementary immunisation activities, "[p]olitical commitment was great[er] than it has ever been with seven Presidents participating in launching ceremonies." With regard to Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) surveillance, one strategy used was conducting sensitisation of clinicians, community leaders, and traditional practitioners. Cross-border immunisation meetings were carried out in the Horn of Africa for endemic countries. (Table 1 on page 5 lists indicators for polio eradication in the African region). Future steps forward suggested are developing effective partnerships and improving capacity-building and training activities - amongst other strategies.
• NIDs - a potent tool for polio eradication - This article within the magazine describes the historical role of mass national campaigns - National Immunization Days (NIDs) - during which all children aged below five years are given two does of the oral polio vaccine (OPV). The author of this article describes, in particular, the Kick Polio out of Africa communication campaign, which sought to highlight the NIDs in the construct of sport-related imagery and communications. Synchronized NIDs (SNIDs) were subsequently developed, under which the door-to-door strategy was recommended. As reported here, a seeming failure on the part of the NIDs to eliminate wild poliovirus (WPV) "showed that social mobilization campaigns had not been effective and that families and communities had not been adequately involved....This prompted a radical change in communication and social mobilization strategies." For example, the neighbourhood communication approach was revitalised. Furthermore, "[c]onvinced of the need for dialogue on health-related issues and mindful of the importance of sub-regional health integration, the Heads of Member States of the Economic Community of West African States agreed to organize official regional ceremonies for the launch of" SNIDs each year.
• Laboratories as key to the polio eradication effort - This network of 16 laboratories "plays a critical role in the identification and presence" of WPV.
• The role of social mobilisation in polio eradication - This article makes the case that "[t]he appreciable success being achieved in the polio eradication drive in the African Region has, to a very large extend, been a result of commitment and participation...[which] is largely due to advocacy, social mobilization and communication activities that were an integral part of the Polio Eradication Initiative directed to reach all sectors." The article explores in more detail: advocacy for high-level commitment, social mobilisation (e.g., the role of religious and traditional leaders in disseminating information and encouraging community members to have children vaccinated, as well as the role of community mobilisers going door to door), and communication in order to avoid misconceptions, dispel rumours, and "break" resistance to the administration of the polio vaccine.
• The role of logistics and operations management in polio eradication.
• Polio eradication certification in the African Region.
• Beyond polio (using the management model and personnel structures created as part of the polio eradication effort to combat malaria, child pneumonia and diarrhoea, and measles).
• Polio eradication activities taking place in Nigeria, including strategies being used such as involving political and community leaders, as well as religious leaders and traditional institutions, in the eradication efforts.
• Polio eradication activities taking place in Angola - Amongst the recommendations going forward is to strengthen human resources and communication so that epidemiological surveillance can be expanded to ensure adequate coverage and quality.
• Polio eradication in the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where "[i]nterpersonal communication which has been a choice strategy in recent years has helped to strengthen the involvement of the populations in immunization activities. Occurrences of resistance were overcome by interpersonal communication."