Publication:

Challenges in the COVID-19 vaccination among health care providers in Yangon region, Myanmar: a qualitative study

Background The COVID-19 vaccination campaign is an ongoing worldwide effort to vaccinate a multitude of people to establish herd immunity. However, ensuring vaccine availability, equal distribution, and safe vaccination can be ethically and logically complex. This study was conducted to explore the challenges in managing the COVID-19 vaccination efforts by health care providers in Yangon Region, Myanmar.

Methods A qualitative study was conducted from October 2022 to February 2023 among 28 health care providers, involved in various roles in the COVID-19 vaccination program. Individual in-depth interviews were carried out to explore the challenges from both the administrators’ and implementers’ perspectives. Manual thematic analysis was conducted using both deductive and inductive methods.

Results The participants had mean (SD) service duration of 18.86 (9.79) years with 82% being female. Four main themes were identified (I) Inadequate resources for COVID-19 vaccination: such as insufficient number of health care providers, limited infrastructure including shortage of electricity, accommodations for vaccination, travel and transportation cost (II) poor community acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines due to socioeconomic disparity and low awareness (III) challenges due to management of different types of COVID-19 vaccines and (IV) “ways to successful vaccination campaign which included coordination with other organization, pre-vaccination training and AEFI management”.

Conclusions There were numerous challenges that interfered with the success of the ongoing mass COVID-19 vaccinations. Though many challenges were identified, better planning and resource management, adequate training, greater community involvement and a multi-sectoral partnership would bolster immunization efforts to combat COVID-19 infection.