Report For Community Vaccine Sensitization And Outreach Meetings _ Kanungu-Kanyantorogo
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
This report consists of two community vaccine sensitization outreach activities carried out in two Sub- County of Kanyatorogo and in Kanugu district. The activities were supported by the kirima health centre III in the area that is kirima with facilitation from AGHA -Uganda. This outreach managed to yield 279 people vaccinated in one event drive. This team comprised of mobilisers, health workers and community leaders who did the vaccination exercise and recording the persons vaccinated.
Background of AGHA
Action Group for Health, Human Rights and HIV/AIDS (AGHA)–Uganda is an indigenous non-governmental organization founded in July 2003 to mobilize health professionals and health consumers to address issues of human rights as they relate to health. Grounded on a rights-based approach, AGHA brings together health professionals with NGOs interested in promoting human rights in the health sector to create local and national networks dedicated to health advocacy. AGHA is part of the broader partnerships at national and community levels dedicated to improving and addressing the convergence between health and human rights in Uganda with particular focus on promoting equity and social justice for all Ugandans and especially the marginalized and disadvantaged populations.
Project Background
Misinformation, Disinformation and mistrust often undermines community vaccine uptake, yet information in rural communities, especially of developing countries, is scarce. The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely impacted global health systems and the socio-economic fabric of societies worldwide. By 20th October 2021 there were over 240 million confirmed cases and 4.9 million deaths. The reopening of economies and return to social life is heavily dependent on adequate distribution and uptake of COVID-19 vaccines.
There has however, been wide inequity in the distribution of COVID vaccines. Out of over six billion vaccine doses have been distributed globally, 65% have gone to high income countries. Uganda planned to vaccinate 21.9 million people aged 18 years and above in two phases starting with a priority population of about 4.8 million people. However, of the priority groups, only 12% had received the second dose of vaccine by 15th October 2021 which represents 2.7% of the planned vaccinations. Of the priority groups; 41.6% of health workers were fully vaccinated, 22.8% of security personnel, 20.2% of teachers, 4.7% elderly (aged 50+) and 2.4% of people with comorbidities. Besides the procurement and supply challenges experienced in accessing the vaccines, there is widespread hesitancy by the population driven by high levels of misinformation and disinformation mainly proliferated by social media but also limited government guidance on the matter. There is a pipeline of over 8.6 million doses of vaccines expected between October and December 2021 but the current slow uptake will affect use. There is therefore an urgent need to ramp up community information drives to ensure that the population is adequately covered and protected. Studies conducted in Uganda so far have also revealed that confidence in, trust and access to COVID-19 vaccines is still low among rural and urban communities because of misinformation, disinformation, social influence and inadequate interventions to popularize Covid 19 Vaccines uptake and acceptance. FOR MORE INFORMATION DOWNLOAD PDF
