Knowledge and perception of microbicides among healthcare providers in Calabar, Nigeria

Background: With the worldwide spread of HIV/AIDS, the absence of a known cure and the challenges associated with existing prevention  methodologies, there is need for new prevention technologies. The  successful uptake of healthcare products and services depend, to a large extent, on healthcare providers’ knowledge, perception and attitude  regarding them.Objectives: To determine the knowledge and perception of healthcare providers regarding microbicides.Methods: A semi-structured questionnaire was administered on 400  randomly selected health care providers in Calabar, Cross River State of Nigeria. Data obtained from the 350 returned questionnaire were analyzed using EPI –Info software version 3.5.1Results: One hundred and sixty-four (46.9%) respondents were medical doctors while 157 (44.9%) were nurses, 7 (2%) were Pharmacists and 22 (6.2%) belonged to “other” categories. Thirty- two percent knew the  advantages of microbicides over condoms. Sixty-eight percent indicated that microbicides would benefit only women while to 27%, it would benefit both men and women. Seventy-five percent of respondents would be willing to act as community advocates for microbicides while 21% would not be willing and 4% were not decided. There was a statistically significant association between professional group and willingness to act as  community advocates for microbicides. Medical doctors were more likely to act as advocates than other professional groups (p<0.05). Female  respondents were more likely to have correct knowledge regarding  microbicides than males (p<0.05)Conclusion: There are gaps in knowledge regarding microbicides among the health care providers. Capacity building would be successful since the majority are willing to act as community advocates

Perception and acceptability of malaria vaccine among maternal and child health clinic attendees at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Calabar, Nigeria

Background: Ninety percent of the world's malaria cases occur in sub-Saharan Africa. Because of challenges with ongoing malaria control strategies there is need for newer strategies such as malaria vaccine. Nigeria's immunization program has suffered series of setback in recent times due to misperception that marred its acceptability. Malaria vaccine trials have already commenced in some countries. The aim of this study was to assess the perception and acceptability of malaria vaccines among maternal and child health clinic attendees.Methodology: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study. A semi-structured pre-tested interviewer-administered questionnaire was used for data collection from maternal and child health clinic attendees in Calabar, Nigeria. Respondents were selected using systematic random sampling. Data was collected on socio-demographic characteristics, sources of information regarding malaria vaccine and perception and acceptability of malaria vaccine.Results: Majority of respondents, 90.5%, were females, 93% were married and 77.5% were educated up to tertiary level. Civil servants constituted 35.1% of respondents. Majority, 157(60%) of respondents had heard about malaria vaccine prior to the study. Eighty –four percent of respondents indicated that they believe malaria vaccine is necessary for malaria control. Fifty- three percent of respondents agreed that they would allow their children to be volunteers for malaria vaccine trial. Eighty- six percent of respondents would recommend that malaria vaccine be made part of the country's National Programme on Immunization.Conclusion: Majority of respondents had good perception of malaria vaccine. However, there is need for more advocacy and health education so as to debunk all myths and misperceptions.Keywords: Malaria, Vaccine, Acceptability, Perception, Immunization, Nigeri

Exposing concerns about vaccination in low- and middle-income countries : a systematic review

Concerns about vaccination lead to under- and no-vaccination. Our objective is to synthesise and expose evidence on individuals' and communities' concerns about vaccination to influence current debates on strategies to improve vaccination coverage in low- and middle-income countries.; Systematic literature review till February 2014, following standard methods. Published and grey literature that focused on individuals and community concerns on childhood vaccinations were selected.; 44 quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods studies were included. Main reported concerns referred to perceptions of vaccine harms (e.g. attribution of fatal events). Other concerns included programme distrust (mainly due to rumours and conspiracies) and health system unfriendliness.; Concerns about vaccination are widespread and further worsen the challenges related to programmatic and health system barriers to vaccination. There is a disconnection between qualitative and quantitative research which misses the opportunity to quantify what is reported in the former. Strikingly, there is a wealth of evidence on concerns but much lesser evidence on interventions to address them. We welcome World Health Organization initiative to tackle vaccine hesitancy and call for the synthesis of evidence and production of guidance on strategies to address concerns on vaccination