ECOVACSEN-HPV

Human papillomavirus (HPV) infections cause various clinical conditions, especially cervical cancer, which is the leading cause of cancer deaths in sub-Saharan Africa, including Senegal, where a national HPV vaccine campaign targeting girls aged 9 is currently deployed. This campaign is conducted in a context characterized by the rise of vaccine hesitancy (VH), which includes, among other things, trust issues among the population regarding the safety and efficacy of vaccines, but also the rise of vaccine-specific attitudes and behaviors. Our project aims at a better understanding of lay people’s and health workers’ beliefs, attitudes and behaviors toward vaccination issues in this context. We will target both rural and urban areas, but specifically in the South of Senegal, where immunization rates for childhood vaccines are the lowest in the country. Four objectives structure our project, resulting in 8 different Work Packages. As regards the issue of identifying the actors involved in HPV vaccination decision, and then understanding their respective roles, a first WP will consist in a review of the scientific and grey literature related to vaccination-related beliefs, attitudes and behaviors in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, 3 other WP are planned corresponding to three series of in-depth interviews, targeting respectively mothers (WP2), other lay people possibly involved in decision-making about HPV (WP3), and health workers involved in the HPV immunization campaign (WP4). Another main issue of the project is about assessing VH and its determinants among vaccinators of the HPV campaign. The corresponding WP5 will use results from WP4 to build and test a questionnaire designed to measure VH among health workers involved in the HPV vaccination campaign. Similarly, assessing VH and its determinants among mothers concerned by the HPV vaccination campaign is of crucial interest. The corresponding task (WP6) aims to conceive and test a questionnaire using input from WP1, WP2 and WP3. Last, another main objective of our project is to investigate the role of HPV vaccine controversies in the (social) media and on the internet. As a result, our project aimed at collecting and analyzing data related to HPV vaccine controversies in the Senegalese media and on the internet (WP7), as well as on social media-related data (Tweeter, WP8). Based on a multidisciplinary approach, our project combines qualitative and quantitative methods, and innovative methods to analyze vaccination issues on the social media. From a public health perspective, we expect our project to play a role in contributing to improve population health in Senegal, by identifying barriers to HPV vaccination, among both vaccinators and the general population, and by providing further understanding on beliefs, attitudes and behaviors that could prove useful in the design of information and prevention campaigns, or in the design of training sessions for health workers involved in immunization campaigns (WP9). Another crucial aspect of our project is about building durable partnerships with local academic institutions, and especially the Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar (UCAD) and the Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Analyse Economique (ENSAE) Dakar.