Application of the Information, Education and Communication (IEC) Strategy for Immunisation

The IEC Strategy includes the following:

Confirming the relationship between media and health:
The strategy looks to make people who work in mass media - radio, press, television and alternative media - aware of the social responsibility that they have, with the purpose of actively involving them as strategic allies in the health campaigns. In that sense, it is aimed to take advantage of the high degree of credibility that journalists and media in general have among the community, to legitimise the messages produced by the health personnel. Motivating mass media to work with health related issues is one of the central tenets of the strategy. This motivation is generated through regular visits to the media that intensify when key dates established for all the country in the vaccination schedule designed by the Ministry of Social Protection are close.

The aim of these visits is to emphasise the profit in terms of commitment, social service and surrender of public payment of accounts before the community that media can obtain by covering health issues, in addition to the economic benefits received by the emission of the messages. Thanks to this motivation, significant discounts in the media tariffs have been obtained that have allowed the strategy to achieve wide application and departmental coverage. In addition to addressing the media’s sense of social responsibility, the strategy promotes the work of permanent monitoring and evaluation of the campaigns by mass media.

The messages:
Unlike the traditional campaigns, with IEC Strategies messages are not transmitted as advertisements, but as part of the usual programming. In this way, they are not perceived by the public like another commercial among many, but as important and useful messages.

Examples of this are radio spots, which are not pre-recorded, but read live. The messages are structured as a paragraph, each one of which makes sense in itself and is independent of the others. This facilitates its inclusion within the structure of the radio programmes and the pick-up of key and complete ideas on the part of the public.

In addition, the messages are designed so that they contain the basic information, but each journalist can communicate them to the public in a colloquial language, in the form of a daily dialogue. This facilitates its absorption and appropriation by people. The messages are an integrated part of radio and television programmes with the same characteristics. No changes in the voice timbre or tone are made. This is the case of a transmission of a soccer match, for example, in which the narrative and touching tone that characterises it is retained.

In order to cover the entire district, the messages are transmitted through the local mass media (radio and television) of the different municipalities, unlike previous campaigns that used only regional television, which did not cover all the municipalities. Another one of the mechanisms that have been effective in the case of the television is the broadcasting of messages through the closed circuits of television of the terminals of ground transport.

In all the promotional pieces used to promote vaccination it is emphasised that this service is free, that it is important to keep the vaccination card, to complete the vaccination scheme, and that the vaccination is a right of all children and women from 10 to 49 years of age.

The intended public:
In the development of the strategy, it became evident that some of the causes of children not being vaccinated is that their parents are very busy, they forget the vaccination dates or they simply do not know how to interpret the vaccination card. In order to overcome these obstacles two measures were taken:

• The development of education processes so that parents learn to understand and to use the vaccination card in the right way.
• Addressing a great part of the campaign towards children themselves. The messages directed to the children look to diminish or to eliminate the negative fear that they can feel towards vaccines. The messages emphasise the well-being that immunisation provides and the negative effects that could result from not being vaccinated. This was brought about as a consequence of findings that suggested children themselves are successful in pressing their parents to be vaccinated.

The campaigns employ didactic material like games of escalera (stairs), cartas (letters) and parqués, with which children learn the vaccination scheme while they play. The work with these games has been implemented also with community mothers who are in charge of the daily care of groups of children, as well as primary school personnel. In addition, the Health Section Directorate of Antioquia retook the image of Pitín (a happy and healthful boy) that was used during the National Vaccination Crusades in the 80s decade in Colombia, and modernised it to use it in the different pieces distributed like stickers, glasses, symbols, posters, etc.

Immunisation and Vaccines, Children, Health.

The acceptance of the vaccination campaigns by the community as a result of the strategy has been positive. It has been demonstrated through letters and drawings sent by those expressing gratitude for the improvement of their health conditions.

Since the application of the strategy, the department of Antioquia has managed to have better coverage in vaccination:

Vaccinated and coverage of vaccination accumulated to December of 2004 in the department of Antioquia

Vaccine	Vaccinated	Coverage
Polio	94,286	86.09%
DPT (Diphteria, Pertussis, Tetanus)	95,139	86.87%
BCG	104,025	94.98%
Hepatitis B	95,154	86.88%
HIb (Hemofilus Influenza B)	95,047	86.78%
SRP (Measles, Rubella, Parotiditis)	99,865	92.43%

Source: Health Sectional Directorate of Antioquia

The mass media have recognised that health is a good information source and that it is a subject of interest for people. Because of the constant request by the public of this type of information, mass media ask health agencies more frequently to provide them with new material.

An important component of this strategy is the use of software called "PAISOFT" that serves as a tool for the gathering, unification and analysis of vaccination information. This software contains personal information on vaccines of each user in the department.

The use of this software has contributed to the increase of the credibility in the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) and in the health institutions by parents, by child caretakers and by the population in general. The software programme is perceived as an indicator that the health system cares about its users. The software also allows people to recover information on the vaccines they have received, if for some reason they lose the vaccination card.

In August 2004, the Minister of Social Protection, Diego Betancourt Palace, sent a letter of congratulation because of the vaccination of 56,540 children, with at least one dose of vaccine including the reinforcements, and by the fulfilment of Antioquia with third doses of Polio in 80% of the population and with Viral Triple in 100%.