HealthScapades Episode #17 | Poverty, The Enemy of Vaccination | 17.10.2024
by Tayo Fasuan
I had prepared another story for today, though I haven’t actually completed it. But after supervising another round of vaccination today, coupled with a different experience, I decided to write another HealthScapades while standing and resting in my car.
At the last settlement I went to supervise today in Ikere LGA, the vaccination team for the area and I came upon a house with only a single child sitting outside. It was an old mud house, with cracks here and there on the two-storey building.
Since no child can be vaccinated without the parent or guardian being present, we asked about her parents. She couldn’t give a coherent answer, so we asked the neighbours, who told us the mother has been sick for a while and that she was inside the house.
The neighbours said we could vaccinate the child, so we asked if she had eaten, since no child should be vaccinated without eating, and the answers from the child and the neighbours were simultaneously no. I looked at the time; it was 11:23 am, so I further pressed if they were referring to breakfast or brunch. They replied that neither. I was alarmed and saddened.
The truth is that this is a regular occurrence during vaccination exercises – people are always complaining of hunger and lack of money. And while those who usually complain are adults and older people, this hit me harder since it was a young, innocent child of four who was interested in taking the vaccine but was obviously very hungry too.
I bought bread and pure water for her, and she was later vaccinated. Her mother even called her inside to eat out of the bread while we waited from afar in front of their house, where some neighbours regaled us with the family’s peculiar tale of poverty. We later vaccinated the child and left, a bit saddened by the whole drama.
The truth is that it would be hypocritical of me to claim this was the first time I would be witnessing this during health intervention fieldwork. It would also be super-hypocritical of me to say I didn’t know poverty is in the land. In fact, the kind of poverty that’s presently prevalent in the country is unprecedented.
This is why, at the moment, it is the single most mitigating factor against vaccination. No child can be vaccinated without eating. No vaccine can work on malnourished and starving children. And poor parents with hungry children will mostly be resistant towards vaccination.
With the present economic hardship rampant in the country, the greatest threat to vaccination effectiveness and acceptance is now poverty, not lack of vaccines, health workers or international support.