What is a Social Vaccine ?

What is a Social Vaccine ?

A Social Vaccine is a metaphor for a series of social and behavioural measures that government can use to raise public consciousness about unhealthy situations through social mobilisation.

⇒A social vaccine addresses barriers and facilities of behaviour change, whether attitudinal, social, cultural or economic and supplements information, education and communication with targeted social and behaviour change communication strategies.

⇒Uganda and Thailand used these strategies during the HIV pandemics to bring down the incidence of HIV infection, before highly active antiretroviral treatment was introduced in 1995. They demonstrated how an effective social vaccine helped "Flatten the curve" till effective treatments were discovered that dramatically reduced mortality, viral loads and infection transmission. 

A social vaccine also require people to hold leaders accountable to invest in :

-- Rapidly scaling up testing.

-- Meeting the basic and economic needs of vulnerable sections.

-- Providing psychological support where needed.

-- Provide PPE to front line workers in health, sanitation, transport and other essential services. 

-- Not compromise the privacy and dignity of infected individuals and their families in the interest of public health.

-- Building trust is key if government imposed mitigation strategies are to be embraced by the population.