Lessons from the field: COVID-19 outbreak investigations in Kpone-Katamanso, Greater Accra, Ghana: a Global South approach to disease control and contact tracing

Danquah, Esther Priscilla Biamah; Darko, Shadrack; Frimpong, Adom; Head, Michael G; Osei, Bright

doi:10.1093/trstmh/trac063

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…However, it would still appear that most countries on the African continent did not experience high overall death rates observed in high-income settings such as the United Kingdom or United States of America. There are likely to be many contributory factors to the lower mortality in West Africa, including a younger population, improved preparedness [ 6 ], and better outbreak management [ 7 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and conspiracy beliefs in Togo: Findings from two cross-sectional surveys

Akinocho,

Brackstone,

Eastment

et al. 2024

PLOS Glob Public Health

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Togo is a low-income country in West Africa. Estimates from Our World in Data suggest that only 25% of the Togolese population have received at least one dose of any COVID-19 vaccine by June 2023. Whilst the early phase of the pandemic vaccine rollout across 2021 was dominated by higher-income countries taking much of the available supply, there have long been sufficient supplies for all nations. Thus, there remains a need to understand reasons for low uptake in countries such as Togo, here focusing on population confidence and trust, essentially characteristics that could potentially be addressed within health promotion strategies. Two cross-sectional telephone surveys of Togo residents were conducted in December 2020 and January 2022. These surveys asked questions around perceptions of COVID-19, trust in public health messaging, belief in conspiracy theories, and hesitancy around COVID-19 vaccination. Analyses here focus on unvaccinated respondents. Across Survey 1 (N = 1430) and Survey 2 (N = 212), 65% of respondents were men, and 47% lived in Lomé (capital city of Togo). Between Surveys 1 and 2, overall hesitancy (33.0% to 58.0% respectively) and beliefs in conspiracy theories (29% to 65%) significantly increased. Using logistics regression, governmental mistrust was the strongest significant predictor of hesitancy (OR: 2.90). Participants who indicated agreement or uncertainty with at least one conspiracy belief also predicted greater vaccine hesitancy (OR: 1.36). Proactive approaches to public health messaging, that better understand reasons for hesitancy across different demographics, can support uptake of COVID-19 vaccinations within Togo. This includes health promotion campaigns that use locally and nationally trusted knowledge providers (e.g. the health service or religious leaders) for greatest effectiveness at reducing impact of misinformation. Key future research should focus around knowledge gaps and areas of mistrust created by the pandemic, such as the impact of misinformation upon routine immunisation uptake.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and conspiracy beliefs in Togo: Findings from two cross-sectional surveys

Akinocho,

Brackstone,

Eastment

et al. 2024

PLOS Glob Public Health

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and conspiracy beliefs in Togo: Findings from two cross-sectional surveys

Akinocho,

Brackstone,

Eastment

et al. 2023

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Togo is a low-income country in West Africa. Estimates suggest that only 25% of the Togolese population have received at least one dose of any COVID-19 vaccine by June 2023. Whilst the early phase of the pandemic vaccine rollout across 2021 was dominated by higher-income countries taking much of the available supply, there have long been sufficient supplies for all nations. Thus, there remains a need to understand reasons for low uptake in countries such as Togo. Two cross-sectional telephone surveys of Togo residents were conducted in December 2020 and January 2022. These surveys asked questions around perceptions of COVID-19, trust in public health messaging, belief in conspiracy theories, and hesitancy around COVID-19 vaccination. Analyses here focus on unvaccinated respondents. Across Survey 1 (N = 1430) and Survey 2 (N = 212), 65% of respondents were men, 47% lived in Lomé (capital city of Togo), 25% completed higher education, 67% were married, and 69% were Christian. Between Surveys 1 and 2, overall hesitancy (33.0% to 58.0%) and beliefs in conspiracy theories (29% to 65%) significantly increased. Using logistics regression, governmental mistrust was the strongest significant predictor of hesitancy (OR: 2.90). Participants who indicated agreement or uncertainty with at least one conspiracy belief also predicted greater vaccine hesitancy (OR: 1.36). Proactive approaches to public health messaging, that better understand reasons for hesitancy across different demographics, can support uptake of COVID-19 vaccinations within Togo. This includes health promotion campaigns that use locally and nationally trusted knowledge providers (e.g. the health service or religious leaders) for greatest effectiveness at reducing impact of misinformation. Key future research should focus around knowledge gaps and areas of mistrust created by the pandemic, such as the impact of misinformation upon routine immunisation uptake.

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Infection prevention and control: Qualitative study of the preparedness and response of Christian health Association of Ghana to Marburg virus disease in Ghana

Agboh,

Adjei,

Okai

et al. 2024

Heliyon

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Lessons from the field: COVID-19 outbreak investigations in Kpone-Katamanso, Greater Accra, Ghana: a Global South approach to disease control and contact tracing

Cited by 3 publications

References 8 publications

COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and conspiracy beliefs in Togo: Findings from two cross-sectional surveys

COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and conspiracy beliefs in Togo: Findings from two cross-sectional surveys

COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and conspiracy beliefs in Togo: Findings from two cross-sectional surveys

Infection prevention and control: Qualitative study of the preparedness and response of Christian health Association of Ghana to Marburg virus disease in Ghana

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