Presented at: The Technical Advisory Group (TAG) Meeting on Communication for Polio Eradication

This PowerPoint presentation was part of a November 2006 meeting hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO) African Regional Office (AFRO) in Zimbabwe. At this meeting, country-specific presentations were made by communication practitioners in 5 countries which have experienced ongoing cases of wild polio virus (WPV) from 2005 to 2006. The objectives of the meeting included the following:

1. To critically review country communication strategies and activities for polio eradication, routine immunisation and integrated expanded programme of immunisation (EPI)-polio action including progress in implementing the Yaounde 2005 TAG country recommendations.
2. To develop the technical recommendations for each country which, when implemented, would improve polio and routine communication performance.
3. To develop and propose communication indicators that can be effective in measuring the impact of communication strategies for improved polio eradication and expanded routine immunisation.

The presentation provides a general review of overall immunisation and child health to date and shares some insights into African polio communication efforts.

According to the presentation, polio continues to remain endemic in 4 countries globally, with a trend of virus importation occurring especially in Central and West African countries. The success of this spread is attributed to the lack of support for continued supplementary immunisation activities (SIAs) in countries with low routine immunisation coverage.

Despite having achieved interruption of polio transmission from 2002-2005, the Eastern and Southern African region has seen a resurfacing of cases in Somalia, Angola, Namibia, Sudan and Kenya. These cases are geographically restricted and most strongly affect border communities.

Transmission in most re-infected Western and Central African countries, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has been stopped. Nigeria remains the only polio endemic country in Africa, with an increase in the number of cases presented from 2006 to 2007. These cases are restricted to the northern states, with continued exportation to Niger.

This presentation proposes the creation of a set of global standards to guide country level polio eradication initiative (PEI) communication support. According to the presenters, these standards constitute the basic components necessary to establish a strong communication support presence, with the aim of allowing countries to respond according to their particular needs. They include: adequate staffing at national and sub-national levels, functional planning committees/forums, and the linking of advocacy activities, with an emphasis on linking global advocacy to local level needs.

Major activities and achievements of 2006 are detailed in this presentation as follows: the integration of data into communication planning; a strategic shift to focus on community dialogue; media training and engagement; regional communication meetings; the development of a framework of community linkage; and the development of outbreak response guidelines.

Nigeria in particular saw a number of new initiatives in 2006. Multiple support missions have worked closely with the country team to identify means of improving communication support, including the provision of additional staff and consultants. State capacity has been enhanced to promote better planning, and national multi-partner strategies have been developed as a result.

Challenges remain, including: overcoming refusals and non-compliance issues; lack of skills and resources to implement; monitor and evaluate immunisation activities; limited number of trained staff; and inadequate planning.

The presentation concludes with several suggestions, including that support for global, country and regional capacity should be achieved through workshops/training and involvement from headquarters/regional offices (HQ/RO) and consultants. In addition, building and maintaining working communication groups between PEI partners, and providing immediate response to outbreak situations are seen as important future goals.

Click here to download the full PowerPoint presentation as a PDF file.

Click here to access summaries of, and full reports from, other presentations from the 2006 TAG meeting.