RANCHI: The health workers carrying out testing and inoculation drives in rural areas are being frequently subjected to attacks from villagers who have doubts about the efficacy of the testing methods and the vaccines.
Around four instances of attacks on health workers have surfaced in the past one-and-a-half-months, resulting in Khunti SP Ashutosh Shekhar directing his team to accompany the health workers to the rural areas on Wednesday.
On Monday, residents of seven villages under Mandu block in Ramgarh district did not allow the health workers to enter their hamlets for vaccination.
Similarly, in Ramgarh block of Palamu district, the vaccination team was chased away by the villagers.
On May 29, a testing team was shooed away from Baradarh village under Angara block in Ranchi district after a villager, who identified himself as an “educated man”, protested against the team for testing kids.
On May 22, trouble ensued for the health team at a village in Tamar block when a four-year-old girl “fell asleep” after undergoing a RAT test.
The incident triggered off a commotion in the village and the team was held captive for hours.
A few days earlier, on May 17, some villagers in Rania panchayat of Khunti district attacked a van which was carrying vaccines.
Healthcare experts, however, find this attitude of the villagers “quite normal” and said that any vaccination drive for the adult population is always met with strong resistance, which needs to be tackled with a great deal of planning and intervention.
Dr Devesh Kumar, who heads the department of preventive and social medicine at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences, finds vaccine hesitancy a good sign for success of any inoculation drive.
“I may sound unrealistic but the fact is that little bit of vaccine hesitancy keeps the health apparatus on its toes and any chance of complacency is ruled out,” he said.
He added that the government must focus on a carrying out an awareness campaign along the lines of election campaign followed during polls to tackle the matter.
“The way political parties reach out to even the remotest village that needs to be replicated in order to erase the hesitancy regarding the jab from the villagers’ minds,” he said.
Dr Kumar stated that with only a limited number of vials available with the government, the hesitancy will help the authorities strategize target groups on one hand and carry out IEC (Information Education and Communication) in the rural areas effectively on the other.
He suggested that IEC material should be pushed into the villages with help from local community leaders.
“Proper communication and an awareness model has to be finalised after inviting suggestions from the experts.
A pre-vaccine strategy should be there so that ground is prepared before the vaccine team visits a village,” he said.
He added that at the policy-level, insurance companies should make vaccine compulsory for honouring any claim from now onwards.
Some villagers may not be attacking the health teams but they are questioning the efficacy of the vaccine upon seeing that many are getting infected even after taking the jab.
For example, a Palamu-based religious leader named Father George Monipally, who has a huge following, was raising awareness about vaccines in his home town after taking the first dose.
He, however, got infected with Covid three days after taking the second dose and he had to be admitted to a hospital in Patna.
Although he recovered, people in his home town have now started suspecting the efficacy of the vaccine.
The former national vice-president of Indian Medical Association, Dr Ajay Kumar Singh, feels that such instances have to be dealt with carefully and people need to be informed that vaccines have 70% efficacy.
“Even if the father got infected, he recovered which is because of the vaccine and this message should be publicised properly,” he said, adding that the government has done very little on the awareness front.
Sanjay Kerketta, who is a resident of Ramgarh block in Palamu, cited a genuine issue faced by people living in remote areas for his reluctance in taking the jab.
He said, “What if a person falls sick after taking the vaccine.
Where do we take him? The primary health centre here does not open regularly while the nearest community health centre is 27km away.
Can we ferry a sick person to the CHC on bicycle?” Dr Singh admitted that the lack of faith on government establishments is one of the main reasons behind vaccine hesitancy.
“The government needs to assure people that a dedicated healthcare centre would be kept ready to handle any exigency,” he said.
(With inputs from Mukesh Kumar Bhatt in Ranchi, N K Agarwal in Ramgarh and M F Ahmed in Palamu)