Perception and awareness towards malaria vaccine policy implementation in Nigeria by health policy actors

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to assess the perception and awareness of malaria vaccine policy implementation among health policy actors in Nigeria. METHODS: A descriptive study was conducted to assess the opinions and perceptions of policy actors on the implementation of a vaccination programme against malaria in Nigeria. Descriptive statistics were carried out to study the characteristics of the population and the univariate analysis of the responses to questions presented to the participants. Multinomial logistic regression was conducted to evaluate the association between demographic characteristics and the responses. RESULTS: The study revealed that malaria vaccine awareness was poor, with only 48.9% of the policy actors having previous knowledge of the malaria vaccine. The majority of participants (67.8%) declared that they were aware of the importance of vaccine policy in efforts to manage disease transmission. As the number of years of work experience of the participants increased, the odds of being more likely to be aware of the malaria vaccine increased [OR 2.491 (1.183–5.250), p value < 0.05]. CONCLUSION: It is recommended that policy-makers develop methods of educating populations, increase awareness of the acceptability of the vaccine and ensure that an affordable malaria vaccine programme is implemented in the population.