Why Communities Should Be the Focus to Reduce Stigma Attached to COVID-19.

Since 1999, the CORE Group Polio Project (CGPP) has developed, refined, and deployed effective strategies to mobilize communities to improve vaccine uptake for polio (and other vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles) and conduct surveillance for infectious disease threats in high-risk, border, and hard-to-reach locations. CORE Group Polio Project teams have been called upon to address the COVID-19 pandemic, and, like with polio, the pandemic response is impacted by stigma in all areas of response, from health education, testing, contact tracing, and even treatment for infected individuals. The CGPP has reached back into its polio experience and is redeploying successful community engagement activities to address stigma as part of the COVID-19 response. Across country programs, community health volunteers communicate risk and behavior change at the household level by integrating health education and promotion activities with a focus on practical measures of COVID-19 prevention. Moreover, leveraging established and trusted partnerships with community networks and community leaders are providing lessons that can be adopted by the global community. The CGPP offers three overarching recommendations to curb stigma: 1) facilitating inclusive community engagement, 2) leveraging existing community networks and 3) cocreating with community leaders.

The Critical Role and Evaluation of Community Mobilizers in Polio Eradication in Remote Settings in Africa and Asia.

This article assesses the CORE Group Polio Project (CGPP) experience over a 20-year period in 5 countries. It examines how a program designed to provide social mobilization to eradicate one disease, and which did so effectively, functioned within the general framework of community health workers (CHWs). Vertical health programs often have limited impact on broader community health. CGPP has a 20-year history of social mobilization and effective program interventions. This history provided an opportunity to assess how CGPP community mobilizers (CMs) functioned in polio and maternal and child health. The Updated Program Functionality Matrix for Optimizing Community Health Programs tool of the CHW Assessment and Improvement Matrix (AIM) was used to examine CGPP CM roles across different contexts. The analysis determined that CGPP CMs met the basic level of functioning (level 3) for 6 of the 10 components of the AIM tool. This cross-country descriptive analysis of the CGPP demonstrates the importance of embracing the full range of CHW AIM components, even in a vertical program. Use of data, community involvement, local adaptation, and linkage with the health system are especially critical for success. This general lesson could be applied to other community mobilization and disease/epidemic control initiatives, especially as we face the issues of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Preventing Importation of Poliovirus in the Horn of Africa: The Success of the Cross-Border Health Initiative in Kenya and Somalia.

In 2013, the outbreak of wild poliovirus (WPV) in the Horn of Africa (HOA) triggered an aggressive, coordinated national and regional response to interrupt continued transmission. Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and other HOA countries share a range of complex factors that enabled the outbreak: porous and sparsely populated borders, insecurity due to armed conflicts, and weak health systems with persistently under-resourced health facilities resulting in low-quality care and low levels of immunization coverage in mobile populations. Consequently, the continued risk of WPV importation demanded cross-border and intersectoral collaboration. Assessing and addressing persistent communication gaps at the subnational levels were necessary to gain traction for improved immunization coverage and surveillance activities. This article describes a systematic approach to institutionalizing processes of dialogue and facilitation that can provide for a sustainable and effective joint cross-border health platform between Kenya and Somalia. It examines an operational model called the Cross-Border Health Initiative (CBHI) to support joint intercountry collaboration and coordination efforts. To evaluate progress of the CBHI, the authors used data from population coverage surveys for routine immunization and supplemental immunization activities (for polio), from acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance, and from plans developed by border districts and border health facilities. The project-trained community health volunteers have been a critical link between the hard-to-reach communities and the health facilities as well as an excellent resource to support understaffed health facilities. The authors conclude that the CBHI has been effective in bolstering immunization coverage, disease surveillance, and rapid outbreak response in border areas. The CBHI has the potential to address other public health threats that transcend borders.