Browsing by Author "Mulombo, Walter Kazadi"

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    COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy amongst healthcare workers: An assessment of its magnitude and determinants during the initial phase of national vaccine deployment in Nigeria
    (EClinicalMedicine, 2022) Nomhwange, Terna; Wariri, Oghenebrume; Nwosu, Ngozi; Mulombo, Walter Kazadi
    While vaccination plays a critical role in the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine rollout remains suboptimal in Nigeria and other Low- and Middle-income countries (LMICs). This study documents the level of hesitancy among health workers (HWs) during the initial COVID-19 vaccine deployment phase in Nigeria and assesses the magnitude and determinants of hesitancy across Nigeria. A cross sectional study across all States in Nigeria was conducted with over 10,000 HWs interviewed between March and April 2021. Data were cleaned and analyzed with proportions and confidence intervals of hesitancy documented and stratification by HW category. We compared the level of confidence/acceptance to be vaccinated across Nigeria and documented the sources of negative information amongst HWs who refused the vaccine. Among the 10 184 HWs interviewed, 9 369 [92% (95% CI= 91, 92)] were confident of the COVID-19 vaccines and were already vaccinated at the time of this survey. Compared to HWs who were less than 20 years old, those aged 50 – 59 years were significantly more confident of the COVID-19 vaccines and had been vaccinated (OR=3.8, 95% CI=2.3 – 6.4, p<0.001). Only 858 (8%) of the HWs interviewed reported being hesitant with 57% (479/858) having received negative information, with the commonest source of information from social media (43.4%.) A vast majority of HWs who were offered COVID-19 vaccines as part of the first phase of national vaccine roll out were vaccinated and reported being confident of the COVID-19 vaccines. The reported hesitancy was due mainly to safety issues, and negative information about vaccines from social media. The issues identified remain a significant risk to the success of subsequent phases of the vaccine rollout in Nigeria.
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    Electronic reporting of integrated disease surveillance and response: lessons learned from northeast, Nigeria, 2019
    (BMC Public Health, 2021) Ibrahim, Luka Mangveep; Okudo, Ifeanyi; Baraka, Fiona; Mulombo, Walter Kazadi; Lasuba, Clement Lugala Peter; Nsubuga, Peter; Alemu, Wondimagegnehu
    Electronic reporting of integrated disease surveillance and response (eIDSR) was implemented in Adamawa and Yobe states, Northeastern Nigeria, as an innovative strategy to improve disease reporting. Its objectives were to improve the timeliness and completeness of IDSR reporting by health facilities, prompt identification of public health events, timely information sharing, and public health action. We evaluated the project to determine whether it met its set objectives. We conducted a cross-sectional study to assess and document the lessons learned from the project. We reviewed the performance of the local government areas (LGAs) on timeliness and completeness of reporting, rumors identification, and reporting on the eIDSR and the traditional paper-based system using a checklist. Respondents were interviewed online on the relevance, efficiency, sustainability, project progress and effectiveness, the effectiveness of management, and potential impact and scalability of the strategy using structured questionnaires. Data were cleaned, analyzed, and presented as proportions using an MS Excel spreadsheet. Responses were also presented as direct quotes. The number of health facilities reporting IDSR increased from 103 to 228 (117%) before and after implementation of the eIDSR respectively. The timeliness of reporting was 43% in the LGA compared to 73% in health facilities implementing eIDSR. The completeness of IDSR reports in the last 6 months before the evaluation was ≥85%. Of the 201 rumors identified and verified, 161 (80%) were from the eIDSR pilot sites. The majority of the stakeholders interviewed believed that eIDSR met its predetermined objectives for public health surveillance. The benefits of eIDSR included timely reporting and response to alerts and disease outbreaks, improved timeliness, and completeness of reporting, and supportive supervision to the operational levels. The strategy helped stakeholders to appreciate their roles in public health surveillance. The eIDSR has increased the number of health facilities reporting IDSR, enabled early identification, reporting, and verification of alerts, improved timeliness and completeness of reports, and supportive supervision of staff at the operational levels. It was well accepted by the stakeholder as a system that made reporting easy with the potential to improve the public health surveillance system in Nigeria.