Trust in vaccines and medicines in Uganda

High COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance among Eye Healthcare Workers in Uganda

Background: Protecting healthcare workers against COVID-19 disease is crucial, and COVID-19 vaccination is the most effective method to do so. Eye healthcare workers provide routine care in proximity, increasing infection risk, hence their need for full vaccination. This study determined COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and barriers to its uptake among eye healthcare workers practicing in Uganda. Methods: This was a cross-sectional online and telephone survey based on the health belief model (HBM), conducted in June–August 2021. A modified Poisson regression model with robust standard errors was used to determine the factors associated with COVID-19 vaccine acceptance. Results: In total, 300 (85%) of the 357 eye healthcare workers participated in the study with mean age 43 ± 8 years and 182 (60.7%) were men. Overall, 97.6% (95% CI: 95.9–99.4) had accepted and/or were willing to take the COVID-19 vaccine, 65.3% had received a shot of the COVID-19 vaccine, and 97 (32.3%) reported the intention to accept the vaccine when it became available. Among the HBM constructs, high perceived susceptibility and high perceived benefits were significantly associated with COVID-19 vaccine acceptance. Conclusions: The acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine among eye healthcare workers in Uganda is very high. There is a dire need to make vaccines available to developing nations like Uganda.

The mediating role of health literacy on the relationship between health care system distrust and vaccine hesitancy during COVID-19 pandemic

This study explores the mediating role of health literacy on the association between health care system distrust and vaccine hesitancy. An online survey including Personal Information Form, Health Care System Distrust Scale, Vaccine Hesitancy Scale, and Health Literacy Scale were applied to 620 participants. The degree of applying mask-wearing, hygiene rule and physical distance, and the level of COVID-19 vaccine literacy were modeled with hierarchical multiple regression analysis to have a deeper analysis of participants’ actions towards COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. It was found that health care system distrust and health literacy were the most important variables that had an impact on vaccine hesitancy. Based on the mediation analysis, the total effect of health care system distrust on vaccine hesitancy was statistically significant. Participants who held a low level of health literacy and a high perception of the health care system distrust experienced more vaccine hesitancy. The findings suggested the health literacy mediated the relationship between health care system distrust and vaccine hesitancy. Health authorities need to consider the dynamic and complex factors around the health care system distrust and health literacy to reduce vaccine hesitancy during COVID-19.

Vaccine hesitancy in the global south: Towards a critical perspective on global health

The complex phenomenon of vaccine hesitancy has been causing increasing global concern. This systematic review aims at analysing the state of art of scientific literature concerning vaccine hesitancy in Latin America and Africa, observing if: (i) they use the same research trends as the global North; and (ii) the parameters recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) and taken from the experience of the global North are adequate to the Global South's context. This review analyses empirical, qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-study publications, from 2015 to 2020, available at five different databases. The studies produced in the Global South bring up important context-specific issues, such as issues of access (that are not included in the WHO's definition of vaccine hesitancy), cultural and religious issues, reactions to governments, reactions to recent episodes of vaccine tests on populations, and reactions to past of colonial violence. Initiatives to understand the phenomenon based on methodological and conceptual frameworks from the global North alone can cause wrongful conclusions.

Unvaccinated children as community parasites in National Qualitative Study from Turkey

Background

This national qualitative study explores (1) the experiences, observations, and opinions of health care workers (HCWs) about beliefs, socioeconomic, cultural, and environmental characteristics of parents refusing vaccination and (2) regional differences in the identified risk factors; (3) recommended solutions to improve vaccine acceptance in each of 12 regions in Turkey.

Methods

In total, we carried out 14 individual semi-structured in-depth interviews and 10 focus group discussions with 163 HCWs from 36 provinces. A thematic analysis was performed to explore HCWs’ observations about the parents’ decisions to reject vaccination and possible solutions for vaccine advocacy.

Results

Within the analyzed data framework, vaccine refusal statements could be defined as vaccine safety, the necessity of vaccines, assumptions of freedom of choice, health workers’ vaccine hesitancy, lack of information about national vaccination schedule and components, not trusting the health system, anti-vaccine publications in social media and newspapers, and refugees. Suggestions based on the HCWs suggestions can be summarized as interventions including (1) creating visual cards with scientific data on vaccine content and disease prevention and using them in counseling patients, (2) writing the vaccine components in a way understandable to ordinary people, (3) highlighting the national quality control and production in the vaccine box and labels, (4) conducting interviews with community opinion leaders, (5) training anti-vaccine HCWs with insufficient scientific knowledge and (6) reducing the tax of parents whose children are fully and punctually vaccinated.

Conclusions

The solution to vaccine rejection begins with the right approaches to vaccination during pregnancy. Prepared written and visual information notes should present the information as “vaccination acceptance” rather than “vaccination refusal”. Further studies on vaccine refusal rates should be carried out in various regions of the world so that region-specific actions are implemented to decrease the anti-vaxxer movement and to prevent an outbreak of infectious diseases.