Acute Flaccid Paralysis Surveillance Status and Community Awareness on Polio in Pastoralist and Semi Pastoralist Communities of Ethiopia

Background: Acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance is an essential component of the polio eradication strategy. Ethiopia adopted AFP surveillance in 1998 part of IDSR however, the country remains at risk for re-infection because of a number of silent areas and borders with high risk countries.

 

Objective: - Assess AFP surveillance status and community perception on AFP/Polio in semi pastoralist and pastoralist areas.

 

Methodology: community and facility based cross-sectional survey was conducted complemented by focus group discussion (FGD) from March-April, 2012. The study populations included district and health center surveillance focal persons, WHO surveillance officers, community and religious leaders and Women/Care giver in purposively selected districts in CORE Group polio project implementation areas of Ethiopia.

 

Result: Interview with health center and district AFP surveillance focal person revealed deficiencies in training, supervision and feedback. The performance of AFP detection varied in the study districts and knowledge about polio and AFP detection was found to be low in the study communities.

Conclusion and Recommendation: There is a need to strengthen awareness of communities through targeted information, education and communication (IEC) interventions. Regular need-based training and supportive supervision should be conducted, involving all stakeholders including religious leaders and community leaders at each step of the awareness creation process, case detection and reporting and by giving special emphasis to silent and border districts.