POST 00666E : COMBATING RUMOURS

POST 00666E : COMBATING RUMOURS Follow-up on Post 00619E, 00643E, 00647E and 00656E 24 April 2004 __________________________________ Anil Varshney (mailto:[email protected]) from India shares his experience and suggestions on this topic of rumours. __________________________________ Opinions expressed and factual positions mentioned by Anthony, Alasdair, Hans and comments by the moderator are all true. In the context of India, where there is resistance to OPV during NIDs, various reasons for the same have been elaborated by Hans and Anthony. For India WHO Searo / Unicef India can provide good answers and their experience in handling the same. But one thing is certain that the resistance can be broken and programme can be completed by untiring efforts of the local health workers, teachers and doctors who are regularly available and visible and who can also assure the community that we will take care if any untoward event happens. Commitment by local health workers is high but are getting fatigued due to unending NIDs and SNIDs, and one has to find ways and means to keep the commitment and morale high. I have myself been in the community who have been resistant , but once explained to them in details and also shared what is happening in other areas, OPV delivery linked with other health services such as providing iron supplements to mothers, vitamin A to children, medicines for common skin infections, fever at a Health Fair nearby or at the polio booth goes a long way in winning confidence and developing rapport with the community (even distributing chocolates helps). Political overtones can not be avoided, the best way is to involve the local politician in inaugurating the polio campaign in their areas irrespective of party affiliations. Regards, Anil Varshney (Now) Independent Consultant ______________________________________________________________________________ Visit the TECHNET21 Website at http://www.technet21.org You will find instructions to subscribe, a direct access to archives, links to reference documents and other features. ______________________________________________________________________________ To UNSUBSCRIBE, send a message to : mailto:[email protected] Leave the subject area BLANK In the message body, write unsubscribe TECHNET21E ______________________________________________________________________________ The World Health Organization and UNICEF support TechNet21. The TechNet21 e-Forum is a communication/information tool for generation of ideas on how to improve immunization services. It is moderated by Claude Letarte and is hosted in cooperation with the Centre de coopération internationale en santé et développement, Québec, Canada (http://www.ccisd.org) ______________________________________________________________________________