Roles of mobile teams in tracing lost to follow-up clients: evidence from the optimization of COVID-19 vaccination uptake and routine immunization in Ekiti State.

Background: Evidence from literature has established that tracing lost to follow-up clients is an effective strategy for complementing other mechanisms for infectious disease control like human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), tuberculosis, and other diseases such as Ebola. As a long-standing successful public health method of optimizing acceptance and/or adherence to infectious disease treatment tracing lost to follow-up clients is usually carried out by manually investigating individuals who absconded or are absent from treatments designed to manage and/or promote their health status. This study seeks to explore the role of mobile teams in tracing clients lost to follow-up for immunization.

Methods: This study was premised on a qualitative research approach to elicit information from purposively selected populations across 9 local government areas (LGA) in Ekiti state, Nigeria. Focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, and key informant interviews were the selected methods of data collection on the roles of mobile teams in tracing lost to follow-up clients for the optimization of COVID-19 and routine immunization in Ekiti state.

Results: A total of 107 healthcare workers across Ekiti state were selected to participate in this study. Our study found tracing lost to follow-up clients resulted in two major successes for health workers. These are increased awareness of COVID-19 vaccination and routine immunization, and improved vaccination coverage for both categories of vaccinees. Distance between communities, and transportation, were interdependent issues reported by health workers as challenges in the course of their duties.

Conclusion: Our study emphasizes the importance of onboarding and/or training health workers across all categories that are involved in the implementation of a public health program, irrespective of the existing knowledge that they may have on the concept. This study recommends that health workers across all levels, in collaboration with key players and stakeholders employ human-centered designed approaches to improve the sensitization of caregivers, and community populace on the values, benefits, and significance of the COVID-19 vaccination and routine immunization uptake.