COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES USED BY PRIMARY HEALTH CARE OFFICIALS IN THE EFFORT TO ERADICATE POLIO (A CASE STUDY OF BAUCHI METROPOLIS)

Background to the Study: The eradication of polio has been hailed as one of the 20th century's greatest successes in primary health care and is universally regarded as a beneficial and cost-effective public health policy (CDC, 2022). Vaccination against polio and other communicable disease is believed to prevent more than three million cases of polio-related infant mortality annually (WHO, 2022; Bosch-Capblanch, Banerjee & Burton, 2022). Despite these enormous benefits, polio eradication programs face numerous obstacles, such as low and stagnant communication/coverage levels, under-utilization of polio vaccine services, inadequate sustainable financing, and misleading information on polio vaccination and its effects (Obrego'n, Ketan, Morry, Warren, Jeffrey, & Galway, 2022).

Nigeria has one of the highest under-5 mortality rates in the world, and around 22 percent of child fatalities in the country are attributable to vaccine-preventable illnesses. Even though polio vaccination rates in Nigeria have grown over the past decade, only 52 percent of eligible children in Southern Nigeria were completely vaccinated in 2013, and 10 to 27 percent of children in the North. These low vaccination rates have been attributed in part to vaccine hesitancy, a behavior influenced by a number of factors, including a lack of trust in the vaccine or the provider, people not perceiving a need for or not valuing the vaccine, poor access, lack of knowledge, rumors, religious beliefs, illiteracy, and other social and political factors (NDHS, 2022).

For polio in particular, primary health care workers in Nigeria have been particularly effective in their campaign against the scourge of polio through immunization, as confirmed by the World Health Organization in 2016 when it declared Nigeria to be polio-free. However, the researcher believes that this effectiveness may be attributable to the communication tactics employed by these primary health care professionals.

Effective communication strategies can potentially increase polio vaccination rates by making more people aware of the benefits of polio immunization; correcting false beliefs, rumors, or concerns that prevent people from getting immunized against polio; and informing people where and when to get immunized (Waisbord & Shimp, 2022).

In the context of this study, communication strategy is described as an intentional, systematic, repeatable, and adaptive approach to impact community decisions about personal and public health involvement, illness prevention and promotion, policy formulation, service improvement, and research (Hill, 2022). It is claimed that communication methods contributed to the success of Nigeria's polio eradication campaign (UNICEF, 2022). The UNICEF-led National Social Mobilisation Working Group is tasked with creating and coordinating communication strategies for all children immunizations.

At the state and municipal levels, social mobilization committees manage these initiatives, which tend to center on the three goals of lobbying, social mobilization, and communication for behavioural change (NPHCDA, 2022).

Nigeria now employs a broad variety of communication tactics. Most plans are designed at the national level before being implemented locally (Gavi, 2022), which may result in insufficient community participation in their development and execution (FMOH, NPHCDA, 2022).

To enhance communication, it is essential to understand what methods are being used, where they are being used, and for what goals (Kaufman, Synnot, Hill, Willis, Horey, & Lin, 2022); which communication strategies are effective; and how individuals like to be communicated with (Ames, Glenton, Lewin & Parents, 2022). A worldwide taxonomy of communication methods has been constructed in order to better comprehend some of these difficulties. This taxonomy tries to map communication techniques in a manner that identify the primary goals of each strategy, so ensuring that these strategies target the most significant causes of polio vaccination reluctance (Willis, Hill, Kaufman, Lewin, Kis-Rigo & De Castro, 2022).

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The elimination of a variety of pediatric illnesses, including polio, is dependent upon an efficient communication strategy. Although different communication methods have been devised and executed in various regions of Nigeria, the spectrum of communication techniques employed has not yet been mapped in a systematic fashion (Gavi, 2022). In addition, evidence-based research have demonstrated that organized communication techniques, such as intense interpersonal contact and social mobilization, media campaigns, and political and national campaigning, have helped to the decline of polio cases in Nigeria. Nevertheless, based on the preceding, this study will investigate the communication tactics employed by primary health care professionals in Nigeria to eradicate polio (Okon, 2022). The project will also investigate ways to incorporate evidence-based communication tactics that are tailored to local conditions into polio immunization programs in Nigeria.