Obituary to polio through tool of social mobilization- A cross-sectional study in Western Uttar Pradesh

Background: Poliomyelitis (polio) is a highly infectious viral disease and mainly affects children under five years of age.Objective: The present cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the impact of social mobilization on families resistant to giving polio drops to their children.Materials & Methods: One round of polio drop administration during September, 2014 was selected randomly. Medical interns were trained as social mobilizers by the UNICEF. The social mobilizers visited the households that refused to give polio drops to their children because of certain rumors and misguided beliefs. They tried to convince the family members that polio drops were safe and it did not hurt any religious and cultural sentiments.Results:The total number of resistant families, identified during first day of house to house activity was 270. Out of these, 180 families were visited by Team ‘A’. Rest of the houses were covered by other agencies. A large number of houses 106 (58.8%) were converted to ‘P’ houses and 74 houses (41.1%) remained resistant after the activity of Team ‘A’. These resistant houses were again visited by Team ‘B’ members. Out of these 74 houses, polio drops were administered in 57 (77.0%) houses. However, after maximum efforts of both the teams, only 17 (9.4%) houses remained extremely resistant.Conclusions: Large numbers of resistant families were converted to ‘P’ houses. However, some of the families remained resistant even after maximum efforts of the teams. These extremely resistant families might be the potent sources of polio infection in the community and they should be followed up strictly.