Health Communication: Polio Lessons

According to the articles in this Journal of Health Communication supplement, the polio eradication experience provides a rich source of health communication knowledge. And yet, it is one that remains relatively unexamined. The papers in this supplement take a small step towards drawing out some of the lessons and looking at what these experiences have to say to the wider field of health communication. They focus on a series of tensions and the manner in which the polio programme has dealt with them.

Tensions like:

The papers show that these and other tensions and the responses to them have many lessons to teach. What is learned from the polio experience may both help inform future eradication efforts now under consideration, such as measles and malaria, and provide essential reading for health communication, generally. More immediately, these lessons may benefit the polio programme itself as it faces the challenges of first interrupting polio transmission and then eradicating it - challenges generated by the need to maintain intensive and effective campaigns and immunisation activities in the face of ever decreasing infections and levels of perceived risk. This supplement was prepared with the following goals in mind: to add to an understanding of the role communication has played within the polio programme; to provide some insight into the challenges ahead; and to contribute to the larger health communication discourse.

Please note: The articles of this supplement will be accessible free-of-charge for six months from the date of publication: until November 7th, 2010. After that time, they will be only be available for purchase.

Journal Contents:

FOREWORD

Immunizations: Building on Success in the 21st Century
Scott C. Ratzan

EDITORIAL

A Drop of Tension
Warren Feek

ARTICLES

Communication for Polio Eradication: Improving the Quality of Communication Programming Through Real-Time Monitoring and Evaluation
Silvio Waisbord, Lora Shimp, Ellyn W. Ogden, and Chris Morry

The Complexity of Social Mobilization in Health Communication: Top-Down and Bottom-Up Experiences in Polio Eradication
Rafael Obregón and Silvio Waisbord

Using Data to Guide Action in Polio Health Communications: Experience From the Polio Eradication Initiative (PEI)
Sebastian Taylor and Lora Shimp

Polio Eradication Is Just Over the Horizon: The Challenges of Global Resource Mobilization
Gregory Alonso Pirio and Judith Kaufman