Communication Network Reduces Resistance to Polio Drops in Lahore

"'Have you given polio drops to my children', shouts the Pathan in Pashto language as the cart slows down before entering a slum, which has been the hub of Afghan and Pashtu speaking migrants..."

This news piece describes the communication strategies of a polio team consisting of health workers and Communication Network (COMNet) social mobilisers during a sub-national immunisation drive in Pakistan, one of the remaining polio-endemic countries. Trained in interactive communication, over 1,400 ComNet staff go house to house for social mobilisation activities and listen to parental concerns. They engage with influencers and leaders in an effort to establish trust and spark community support, as well as to try to create an enabling environment in which vaccination teams can operate.

As detailed here, two COMNet staff members embedded themselves with the polio team going house to house in Lahore's Union Council (UC)-84 to vaccinate children because it (the team) is new and has limited knowledge about the area. A substantial portion of UC-84's population belongs to the Pashtu-speaking community, which is a priority population for polio eradication due to the fact that 17 out of 21 children paralysed by polio as of July 23 2013 were Pashtuns.

Due to such communication efforts, since COMNet's deployment in January 2012, the refusal conversion rate has increased steadily and is now gradually approaching 70%. In other words, nearly two-thirds of refusals reported during campaigns are covered by social mobilisers and vaccination teams. One official cited in the article attributes this success to the fact that COMNet staff members have built excellent rapport with the Afghan and Pathan families.