Widespread distrust and refusal of the COVID-19 vaccine in Papua New Guinea (PNG) is being linked to a rising number of mothers choosing not to bring their children forward for other vaccinations.
And as immunity levels decline in the most populous Pacific Island nation, it is only a matter of time before a devastating disease outbreak occurs, health experts say.
The nation successfully held the COVID pandemic at bay with strict measures, including border closures, until March 2021 when cases began to surge. Now, PNG has recorded a total of 46,427 cases, including 909 in the past one and a half months.
Yet the COVID vaccination rate in the large Pacific Island nation remains dramatically low at just 7 percent of the population for the first dose and 5 percent for the second dose. In comparison, Fiji’s COVID vaccine uptake is at 99 percent for the first and 89 percent for the second dose.
Distrust of the COVID vaccine in PNG has spread to a general distrust of all vaccinations, according to local health professionals.
“COVID vaccine resistance has translated into the hesitancy of mothers and families to have their babies vaccinated,” said Professor Glen Mola, head of obstetrics, gynaecology and reproductive health at the School of Medicine and Health Science at the University of Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby.
The hesitancy is based on “the mistaken fear that the nurses in the baby clinics might covertly vaccinate the baby against COVID-19,” Mola told Al Jazeera.
While PNG’s health services have been under severe strain with the demands of the pandemic, a high level of public distrust of the vaccine is a leading factor in the low uptake.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the uptake of a third dose of the vital DTP (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis) vaccine in PNG infants, for instance, plummeted from 64 percent in 2009 to 31 percent last year.
