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WORLD ANTHROPOLOGICAL UNION

CONGRESS 2024​

Paper

Childhood vaccination coverage: Nursing mothers’ perspectives and geopolitics in rural Nigeria communities

presenters

    Obinna Jude Eze

    Nationality: Nigeria

    Residence: Nigeria

    Nigeria Center for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), Abuja

    Presence:Online

Keywords:

Childhood, Geopolitics, Healthcare, Nursing mothers, Vaccination.

Abstract:

Distance to healthcare facilities, cost of accessing healthcare services, belief in orthodox medicines, rituals and practices, cultural rites and taboo, and general poor economic conditions play crucial role in assessing healthcare services in rural Nigeria communities. Over 20 million children are estimated to have zero vaccination or missed dose, out of these, Nigeria is estimated to have 14% of the global out of the global total estimate. Yet, the fact remain that unvaccinated children are undeniably vulnerable to vaccine-preventable diseases and are in greater chances already disadvantaged health-wise. Access to basic healthcare and poverty in rural communities require serious attention as vaccine coverage in many lower and middle-income countries (LMIC), especially Nigeria, falls short of the World Health Organization’s (WHO). Traditional birth attendants do champion pre-maternal, maternal, and post maternal services in the rural communities because they provide suitable alternatives to orthodox healthcare services in rural communities. In effect, vaccination in children in rural communities are writ with several issues ranging from misconceptions that children who took vaccinations die early or that vaccination is a population reduction mechanism to the community. Managing this development requires proactive community engagement of community stakeholders by relevant local and intentional bodies. This provides avenue for certain privileged people in the community to play local politics as to who is who in the community. Rural communities live a sedentary lifestyle which is closely knit together in what Emile Durheim described as organic solidarity, equivalent to Max Weber’s Gemeinschaft. Thus, the perspectives of nursing mothers in the rural communities are largely shaped by major community influencers and leaders. This necessitates an ethnographic study in Nigeria rural communities to develop empirical evidence on nursing mothers’ perspectives and geopolitics as it bothers on childhood vaccination.