The HPV Vaccine Program in Zanzibar. A qualitative study of the current challenges regarding the HPV vaccination program in Zanzibar
Abstract
The principal aim of this qualitative study is to gain a deeper understanding of the operating HPV vaccine system in Zanzibar and identify potential challenges within it. My goal has been to explore the current functioning of the vaccine system, which was introduced in 2018, and examine healthcare workers' and the general public's views on the vaccine to gain insights into its functionality.
The research follows a qualitative study design with 16 interviews conducted with healthcare workers and local people working outside the health sector in Zanzibar. My data shed light on how the system is not functioning optimally due to barriers like vaccine hesitancy, local misconceptions, parental actions, limitations in education and gaps in knowledge among local people and healthcare workers.
My objective has been to emphasise the importance of social work when integrating a vaccination program into a new context and examine how the system fails to account for culturally sensitive and context-specific perspectives. For my research, it has been important to emphasize and integrate a social work approach to the healthcare standards of the HPV vaccine.
Hence, I chose to apply theoretical concepts from critical social work, which has a long tradition of examining social justice, power dynamics and equality. By incorporating critical theory as a theoretical framework, this research will explore how decolonial and feminist social work perspectives provide necessary insights into the dynamics of the vaccination program to identify areas for improvement in Zanzibar's HPV vaccination system.