The Switch [Video]

"The use of animation for behavior and social change has proven effective while enabling a vast audience to be reached."

As part of communication around the April 2016 global switch from trivalent to bivalent polio vaccine, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) supported the production by PCI Media Impact and Chocolate Moose Media of a short animation film to facilitate the rollout of "switch" programming at regional and country levels. The animated film features a wise, elderly physician explaining the need to gradually phase out the use of the oral polio vaccine (OPV). Picturing children playing in the background, including one polio-afflicted child (joined later in the film by the physician, who is also polio-afflicted), the film breaks down this complex and technical switch so it is more understandable to a wider audience and can serve as the basis for a productive discussion.

As he explains, the new vaccine omits the live, but weakened type 2 polioviruses that have been successfully and safely used for decades to stop poliovirus transmission. Omitting the type 2 virus from the vaccine and properly destroying all samples of the virus (now only held in labs for the creation of the old vaccines) will bring the world one step closer to complete eradication. The new bivalent injection must completely replace the old trivalent oral vaccination in all health care facilities, no matter the size or location, around the world between April 17 and May 1 2016. No matter the size or location of the facility, the switch is necessary. Following this step is to provide polio vaccinations in all routine immunisations for children. Gradually eliminating the oral vaccination completely and replacing it with injections is the final step in the switch.

The film makes the point that this global effort to contribute to the 2013 World Health Assembly (WHA)'s plan to eradicate polio worldwide requires participation by all individuals involved in the promotion of health care, including world leaders, policymakers, community leaders, community members, health officials, and health care workers. Addressing health workers, who will make the switch come to fruition, the physician stresses that this historic opportunity to end polio is "in your hands". It is they who must empower parents and communities with the knowledge to make sure their children are fully immunised. (At this point, the film depicts the physician giving the polio vaccine to an infant as her parents look on.) He ends by saying, "Play your part....to end polio."

Click here to access the video in other languages.