Improving Routine Vaccination Timeliness in India by Systematically Announcing the Arrival of Outreach Teams

Robert Steinglass of JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc in the U.S. will teach community members to use traditional methods such as a drum to signal the arrival of a vaccination team to villages in India to improve vaccination coverage. Children in remote villages are vaccinated by outreach services. Although visits are scheduled on specific days, they often change, and there is no simple way to inform all the relevant families. Sound can travel long distances and is used to call communities together in many cultures. They will pilot test their approach over 12 months in a remote and hilly district in India, and train health workers and a community member to use a culturally-acceptable sound to alert the villagers to the arrival of the vaccinations. They will evaluate its effect on timely vaccination coverage.