Africa COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy

Overview

Vaccine hesitancy is defined by the WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization as a 'delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccination despite availability of vaccination services'. This varies in form and intensity based on when and where it occurs and what vaccine is involved. Several prophylactic vaccines against COVID-19 are currently available. As the world is beginning the roll-out the first approved vaccines, little is known about people's potential acceptance of a COVID-19 vaccine in most of the African countries. ACHES (African COVID -19Vaccine Hesitancy) is an observational study aimed at measuring COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in five west African countries and exploring causes behind the hesitancy with the main objective of informing guidelines for the proficient roll-out of the vaccines in the region.

Full Title of Study: “Africa COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy: a Multi-country Cross-sectional Study”

Study Type

  • Study Type: Observational
  • Study Design
    • Time Perspective: Cross-Sectional
  • Study Primary Completion Date: June 6, 2021

Detailed Description

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2020. Although African countries seem to have weathered the pandemic relatively well so far, with fewer than one confirmed case for every thousand people and around 50,000 death, the African continent has now officially over two million- COVID-19- case threshold. In 2015, WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization defined vaccine hesitancy as a 'delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccination despite availability of vaccination services', which can vary in form and intensity based on when and where it occurs and what vaccine is involved. Several prophylactic vaccines against COVID-19 are currently in development. As the world is beginning the roll-out the first approved vaccines, little is known about people's potential acceptance of a COVID-19 vaccine in most of the African countries. A recent study published in Nature provides results on the acceptability of vaccines in 19 of the 35 hardest hit countries worldwide. South Africa was the only African country included in the survey. An additional survey conducted in 15 African countries between August and December 2020, reveals that the majority of Africans would take a safe and effective vaccine. Nevertheless, vaccine hesitancy towards COVID-19 vaccines evolves over-time. In this view, it is crucial to investigate in depth barriers and facilitators influencing vaccine hesitancy/acceptability within African population. During the last decade several initiatives have emerged that aim at improving vaccine coverage and acceptability across the African continent. A noteworthy example is the Francophone African Civil Society Organizations' Platform for Strengthening Health Systems and Immunization, which has been since 2015 supported by GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation). OAFRESS encourages activities among francophone African members, with the primary objective of reinforcing capacities and coordinating strategies among these countries. The last West African Ebola epidemic demonstrated the importance of engaging communities in order to promote vaccine acceptability. The three most hit countries, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, worked together and invested in research and campaigns to identify and address barriers and facilitators of vaccine acceptance, which informed both clinical vaccine studies and roll-out strategies. In order to promote the equitable and prompt roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine worldwide, as the COVAX initiative strives for, factors influencing vaccine hesitancy in low and middle-income countries need to be investigated more thoroughly. The request for a first roll-out of the vaccines in eligible countries was to be submitted by December 7, 2020. Many of the eligible African countries have placed the order to receive the vaccines, which are already being deployed within these first months of 2021. Country and population preparedness are crucial to making the roll-out a success. 2. Study Objectives 2.1 Overall objective To investigate COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among five African countries to inform effective context-specific public health strategies for roll-out of vaccination. 2.2 Primary objectives • To describe and compare levels of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among the general population and health care workers in rural and urban settings across African countries 2.3 Secondary objectives • To explore factors influencing COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy among the general population and health care workers in urban and rural Africa 3. Methodology 3.1 Study design A cross-sectional survey will be conducted in five African countries. A core study will be implemented in five countries, other countries will enter the study as budget will become available. Study participants will be selected among the general population aged older than 18 and health care workers. Sample sizes have been calculated separately for these two groups.

Arms, Groups and Cohorts

  • General population
    • Questionnaire administered to adult population
  • Health care workers
    • Questionnaire administered to adult health care workers

Clinical Trial Outcome Measures

Primary Measures

  • Frequency of vaccine hesitancy
    • Time Frame: 1 month
    • To describe and compare levels of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among the general population and health care workers in rural and urban settings across different African countries

Secondary Measures

  • Factors influencing vaccine hesitancy
    • Time Frame: 1 month
    • To explore factors influencing COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy among the general population and health care workers in urban and rural Africa

Participating in This Clinical Trial

Inclusion Criteria

General population

  • Be at least 18 years of age, be willing and able to provide written informed consent AND Health professionals – To be health professionals working in health care institutions at all levels of care for the Ministry of Health (MoH) – freely consent to participate in the study Exclusion Criteria:

  • All minors (<18) – All individuals who do not meet the inclusion criteria listed above and those who are not willing to give written informed consent for participation in this research In Senegal – All those already vaccinated or being offered a vaccination for COVID-19 and refused and/or delayed the vaccination

Gender Eligibility: All

Minimum Age: 18 Years

Maximum Age: N/A

Are Healthy Volunteers Accepted: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Investigator Details

  • Lead Sponsor
    • Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine
  • Collaborator
    • Institut de Recherche en Sciences de la Sante, Burkina Faso
  • Provider of Information About this Clinical Study
    • Sponsor
  • Overall Official(s)
    • Daniela Fusco, PhD, Principal Investigator, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine
    • Henri Gautier Ouedraogo, Prof, Principal Investigator, University of Ouagadougu
    • Alpha Mahmoud Barry, Dr, Principal Investigator, Santé Plus
    • Seydou Doumbia, Prof, Principal Investigator, University of Bamako
    • Sylvain Faye, Prof, Principal Investigator, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Senegal
    • Abdullah Mbawah, Dr, Principal Investigator, University of Freetown

References

MacDonald NE; SAGE Working Group on Vaccine Hesitancy. Vaccine hesitancy: Definition, scope and determinants. Vaccine. 2015 Aug 14;33(34):4161-4. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2015.04.036. Epub 2015 Apr 17.

Lazarus JV, Ratzan SC, Palayew A, Gostin LO, Larson HJ, Rabin K, Kimball S, El-Mohandes A. A global survey of potential acceptance of a COVID-19 vaccine. Nat Med. 2021 Feb;27(2):225-228. doi: 10.1038/s41591-020-1124-9. Epub 2020 Oct 20. Erratum In: Nat Med. 2021 Jan 11;:

Schwarzinger M, Watson V, Arwidson P, Alla F, Luchini S. COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in a representative working-age population in France: a survey experiment based on vaccine characteristics. Lancet Public Health. 2021 Apr;6(4):e210-e221. doi: 10.1016/S2468-2667(21)00012-8. Epub 2021 Feb 6.

Samarasekera U. Feelings towards COVID-19 vaccination in Africa. Lancet Infect Dis. 2021 Mar;21(3):324. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(21)00082-7. No abstract available.

Dada S, McKay G, Mateus A, Lees S. Lessons learned from engaging communities for Ebola vaccine trials in Sierra Leone: reciprocity, relatability, relationships and respect (the four R's). BMC Public Health. 2019 Dec 11;19(1):1665. doi: 10.1186/s12889-019-7978-4.

Larson HJ, Jarrett C, Schulz WS, Chaudhuri M, Zhou Y, Dube E, Schuster M, MacDonald NE, Wilson R; SAGE Working Group on Vaccine Hesitancy. Measuring vaccine hesitancy: The development of a survey tool. Vaccine. 2015 Aug 14;33(34):4165-75. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2015.04.037. Epub 2015 Apr 18.

Clinical trials entries are delivered from the US National Institutes of Health and are not reviewed separately by this site. Please see the identifier information above for retrieving further details from the government database.

At TrialBulletin.com, we keep tabs on over 200,000 clinical trials in the US and abroad, using medical data supplied directly by the US National Institutes of Health. Please see the About and Contact page for details.