ABSTRACT
Background: Vaccine hesitancy defined as "delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccination despite availability of vaccination services is a global phenomenon. There have been anecdotal evidence or rather poor documentation of hesitancy or noncompliance among medical practitioners in Northern Nigeria. Objective: We explored the perceptions and perspectives of doctors in Kebbi State, Nigeria, on immunization programs. Materials and Methods: We conducted this crosssectional study involving 63 medical doctors, whose selfadministered questionnaires were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: Only 43.55% of the doctors reported having underfive children with complete vaccination, whereas 84% of the doctors surveyed had a child or a relative with a child who had missed routine immunization (RI) previously. Approximately 66.67% and 67.74% of the doctors believed in the quality of the vaccine and capacity of the health workers to effectively deliver polio supplementary immunization activities (PSIAs), respectively. Adequate training of workers (26.23%) and public enlightenment campaigns (23.68%) were suggested as PSIAs enhancers. Collaboration with community and religious leaders (29.2%), education and public sensitization (28.09%), and improved government funding (13.48%) to improve RI were suggested. Others include incentives and fines (8.99%), adequate training of staff (10.11%), housetohouse vaccination (4.49%), and media publicity (5.62%). Conclusion: Vaccine hesitancy among medical doctors could be a threat to sustained polio interruption and efforts toward improving RI in Kebbi State. The state government and development partners should modify the current approaches to attaining poliofree certification standards and strengthen RI in the state. In addition, there is a need to improve sensitization of doctors in the state on vaccines and their safety profiles with a view to reducing vaccine hesitancy among them