MONROVIA
An annual immunization campaign for Liberian children has been marked by poor turnout, which many attribute to fears among parents that their children could be given experimental Ebola vaccines.
"Parents are hiding their children from our vaccination team in the community," Beatrice Boikai, head vaccinator at a local clinic in capital Monrovia, told The Anadolu Agency.
Her clinic, the Duport Road Health Center, was hoping to vaccinate 41,000 children in Paynesville, Monrovia's largest suburb, but has so far only vaccinated 392.
Every year between December and February, the Health Ministry sponsors a campaign to immunize children below the age of five against measles, polio, hypostatic pneumonia and tuberculosis.
With most parents hiding their children, health workers at Monrovia's hospitals and clinics have been unable to meet their vaccination targets.
Boikai blamed parents' reluctance on voluntary trials, still underway, of an experimental Ebola vaccine.
"In some communities, the people chased our team off, saying we had come to give their children an Ebola vaccine," she told AA.
"We spend days telling people in various communities that the vaccine is not Ebola-related, but they think we're lying to them," the vaccinator lamented.
She added that, in some communities they had visited of over 4,000 residents, not a single child had taken the vaccine.
"The vaccine comes just as Ebola vaccine trials are being carried out, making our work difficult," Boikai told AA.
In February, Liberia launched voluntary trials for an experimental Ebola vaccine.
Test vaccines were brought from a secret holding facility to Monrovia's Redemption Hospital, where it is being administered on a volunteer basis.
Healthcare workers have screened volunteers to ensure their eligibility for the study, which was expected to target at least 6,000 volunteers.
In recent months, Ebola – a contagious disease for which there is no known treatment or cure – has killed 9,177 people, mostly in West Africa, according to a Feb. 11 World Health Organization (WHO) status report.
In Liberia alone, the virus has claimed at least 3,826 lives.
Fear
Esther Yelemei, 50, insisted that none of her six children – or any of her five grandchildren – would take the vaccine.
"I will not agree," she told AA angrily. "This vaccine they say for children; they think we don't know they want to give our children the Ebola vaccine!?"
She said that, since Ebola broke out in her country, she and her children had been never once fallen sick.
"My children are not taking any vaccine until Ebola leaves Liberia," Yelemei said. "My children are fine."
"God protect my children," she added. "No polio or measles will affect them."
Yelemei called on top government officials to have their children and grandchildren publicly vaccinated – only then, she said, would she be convinced that the immunization vaccine was not Ebola-related.
"When I see government ministers and their grandchildren taking the vaccine, then my children will take the vaccine," she told AA.
Another mother, Suah Davis, said her child had only survived the Ebola outbreak by the mercy of God – and not because of immunization.
"How do we know the vaccine isn't an Ebola vaccine?" she asked.
Her child is only one year and a few weeks old. Ebola broke out before he had received his immunization vaccination up to one year.
"My son didn't take all his polio and yellow fever vaccines from when Ebola started and he never got sick or came down with polio or anything," Davis said. "I'm not taking him anywhere."
Resistance
For Abraham Gibson, a 28-year-old father, the immunization vaccine is no laughing matter.
"I can't be convinced to give my children to nurses or doctors to take any measles vaccine," he told AA.
"It's only God that has carried my children through [the Ebola outbreak]," Gibson said.
He vowed to resist any health worker or medical team that came to administer the vaccine to his children.
"The only way my children will take the vaccine is in my absence," the concerned father asserted.
The Agape health center has decided not to send vaccinators into the field, but rather to administer the vaccine at its facility due to stiff resistance by parents and community members.
"They insulted my team and said all sort of things when team members visited communities with the vaccination box," head vaccinator Evangeline Tequah told AA.
"Some people even accused us of being paid to give their children the Ebola vaccine," she said.
"The vaccine is the same one their children have been taking all along – not an Ebola vaccine," Tequah added.
She asserted that, out of 444 targeted children, less than 200 had been vaccinated so far.
Tequah blamed the poor turnout on parents and a lack of public awareness regarding the ongoing Ebola vaccine trials.
"I can't lie – the government didn't do enough to raise awareness about the Ebola vaccine," she told AA. "[That's why] it's difficult for us to convince parents."
The Health and Social Welfare Ministry has also linked the poor turnout to the Ebola vaccine trials.
"How the community perceives the information is our main challenge," Adolphus Clarke, the ministry's deputy program manager, told AA.
"People perceived the information as though we were giving the Ebola vaccine to children under five years old," he added.
The official admitted the trend was not confined to Montserrado County, which includes capital Monrovia, but was evident in other parts of the country as well.
Clarke said the ministry had been able to achieve only 20 percent of its child vaccination target.
The ministry would eventually launch another immunization drive, he added, while refraining from saying when.
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