By Ikome Christie-Noella Eposi in Buea
With an objective to evaluate the survey on the reasons of non-vaccination against covid-19, health care workers and community health workers in the South West region have been encouraged to continue acting as role models and benchmarks to the population. They were urged to get vaccinated so as to better explain the importance of the vaccine to the population.
This was during a restitution meeting of a study that was carried out by focused group discussions to understand the perceptions and the behaviors of health care workers and community health workers towards covid-19 vaccination.
Presiding over the event which took place at the conference hall of Pan Afriqueon Thursday, February 9, 2023 was the SW Regional Delegate of Public health, Dr. Eko Eko Filbert who urged all health personnel present to effectively communicate and disseminate the importance of the covid-19 vaccine to their various communities.
The SW Regional Delegate of Public Health noted that the vaccination against the Covid-19 is the best and most appropriate measure to fight against the pandemic. “The persons who are mainly in the field to administer the Covid-19 vaccination are health personnel and you cannot preach what you don’t believe in. so we are calling on the health personnel to believe in the vaccine so that they can easily transmit the right information to the population”.
“We are aware that there are some health personnel who are still very hesitant in taking the vaccination and this is because they don’t read regularly to understand how science evolves. They stay with social media intoxication, misinformation from social media and do not use their medical knowledge to decipher that which is right. We strongly condemn this and we shall continue to talk to them and show them reasons why they should take the vaccines”Dr. Eko Filbert averred.
Talking to the press, the coordinator for the expanded program on immunization, Dr. Oben Pamela said the study carried out reveals that health care workers are still very hesitant to receive the covid-19 vaccine. “We had about 36% of the health care workers who were willing to take the vaccine and many who were resistant. This study was carried out in October 2021 and compared to then and now, the situation has really improved as the knowledge and perception of health care workers has changed and improved” she explained.
Dr. Pamela added that the low risk perception, the early existence of the vaccine, fear of death etc were some of the many reasons that made persons hesitant to take the vaccine. “As at now, we realize that there has been a mass increase in the number of health care workers who have accepted the vaccine. We are at over 70% of health care workers who have been vaccinated in the SWR. We shall continue sensitizing for covid-19 vaccination because the pandemic is still raging so we must still be on the watch and take proper barrier measures such as taking the vaccine which is very effective” she mentioned
Concerning some strategies employed to enable the population get vaccinated, representatives of the various health districts present explained that they had discussions with traditional heads and sensitized them on the importance of the vaccines. Some used schools, media sensitization etc.
Others had a strong advocacy strategy as they distributed flyers which helped convinced the people on the necessity of taking the covid-19 vaccines.
At the close of the meeting, the health personnel present took a firm commitment to continue in their advocacy and sensitization campaigns so that not only health workers but the entire population of the region will be brought on board and take the covid-19 vaccine.