Evidence Based Decision Making Of COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution in Abuja Municipal Area Council, FCT Nigeria: Study on Influence of Vaccine Hesitancy Amongst Healthcare Workers.
Main Article Content
Abstract
Background
Vaccine hesitancy is one of the greatest threats to global health and is a growing concern worldwide, especially amongst healthcare workers who are at the forefront of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) identified vaccine hesitancy as one of its top ten threats in global health. It appears this threat has only increased since the COVID-19 Pandemic. Healthcare worker’s vaccine hesitancy may be attributed to several factors, including lack of trust in the vaccine’s safety and efficacy, lack of knowledge about the vaccine, fear of side effects and misinformation.
Conducting a study on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy amongst healthcare workers in AMAC, could provide valuable insights into the factors that influence vaccine hesitancy in the region. This could inform public health policies and strategies to increase vaccine uptake amongst healthcare workers, which in turn could improve the overall vaccination rate and help control the spread of the pandemic.
Materials and Methods
The study covered all the twelve wards of the Abuja Municipal Area Council, with 375 Healthcare workers as the respondents. An online semi structured Questionnaire was adapted from the WHO clinical care form.
Results
375 Healthcare workers in AMAC were the respondents for this study. 60% of them reported to have been vaccinated against COVID-19 and only 24.5% which represent 92 respondents have completed their COVID-19 vaccine doses.
The doubting of COVID-19 Vaccine may cause damage to internal organs in the nearest future, could be attributed to fear as (51.5%) agreed and (48.5%) of the respondents did not agree. This could also be attributed to lack of information on how the vaccine was developed and tested. From the results, it shows that 225 Healthcare workers agreed COVID-19 vaccine is a means of controlling population growth (60.0%), only 40.0% did not agreed, representing 150 Healthcare workers respectively.
Conclusion
The study findings provide valuable insights into factors influencing vaccine hesitancy and highlights the need for evidence-based interventions to promote vaccine uptake
Article Details
References
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