Polio Bulletin - Namibia Airdrop

On Wednesday, June 14 2006 at approximately 1:30 pm, a plane flew over Windhoek, Namibia and surrounding areas with an airdrop of 250,000 printed leaflets alerting people to a recent outbreak of polio in that country. (The disease broke out in May and has so far spread to 7 regions - Khomas, Hardap, Otjozondjupa, Oshana, Oshikoto, Omusati and Ohangwena; the number of people that have been affected so far has risen to 60, and 10 have died). The strategy involved drawing on the use of existing networks to provide information directly to the people, and to stimulate community-based efforts to help with the effort to distribute emergency information and to support vaccination efforts against the disease.

Specifically, the Ministry of Health and Social Services, working in partnership with the Namibia newspaper Die Republikein, distributed a bulletin overhead which provided information about poliomyelitis and its symptoms, how it is spread, measures to be taken to prevent transmission, and planned dates for mass vaccination campaigns. The final portion of the flyer indicated that "Any mass immunization activities currently conducted must be stopped with immediate effect as they are causing hysteria and are reducing the effectiveness of the Ministry of Health and Social Services' planned activities". Thus, a key purpose in providing information was to quell the fears of Namibia's citizens about vaccination plans, and to encourage the discontinuation of any plans that might be fostering misunderstanding and reluctance to take action to prevent or address polio.

A key component of this initiative involved local participation at various levels. Beneath the information provided in English on the flyer (summarised above), there was a piece in Oshiwambo and on the reverse side in Afrikaans which included the following call to action: "In the spirit of service delivery to the community a request is made to all residents of Namibia to make a contribution to the distribution of the polio newsletter to communities in far off parts of our country." Those who might be travelling to rural/remote parts of the country are asked, within this bulletin, to contact the offices of the Republikein to collect packages of the polio bulletin to disseminate to farming areas, small villages, and the like. Employers are also implored to encourage workers to visit immunisation clinics. As indicated here, networking is a key strategy: "Republikein is using its extensive distribution network to ensure that the newsletter is distributed as far and wide as possible. Together with its partners in the project we want to ensure that 1,000,000 copies finds its way to every possible residence in our country." Following the air drop, the remaining 750,000 will be distributed countrywide before the start of the first round of the mass polio vaccinations (June 21-23).