COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Sana'a, Yemen

Research Article

International Journal of One Health, 8(1): 58-69

https://doi.org/10.14202/IJOH.2022.58-69

Redhwan Ahmed Al-Naggar¹, Hisham Alshaikhli², Reyadh R. Al-Rashidi³, and Sharon Murtagh⁴

1. Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Al-Hikma University, Sana'a, Yemen.
2. Department of Anatomy and Physiology, School of Public Health and Interdisciplinary Studies, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand.
3. Department of Dentistry, Al-Kut University College, 52001, Wasit, Iraq.
4. Ballyrevagh, Newtowncashel Co. Longford, Ireland.

Background and Aim: The development of a coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine is ongoing. This study aimed to prepare for public acceptance of the vaccine. There is a need to identify the current acceptance and potential barriers to receiving a COVID-19 vaccine in Yemen. Understanding the hesitancy and acceptance of a COVID-19 vaccine are crucial to develop local evidence-based interventions.

Materials and Methods: Twenty students were interviewed in this study. An interview guide was developed and it addressed the willingness to accept a future COVID-19 vaccine. In-depth interviews were conducted, transcribed, and manually analyzed.

Results: The majority of participants agreed that they would take a COVID-19 vaccine for several reasons, including protection for themselves, their families, and others and to stop the spread of COVID-19, for which the vaccine is important, as in other routine vaccinations. However, some participants shared that they would not take the COVID-19 vaccine due to the following reasons: Concerns regarding the safety of the vaccine; feeling fit and healthy, and thus considering themselves to have strong immunity; feeling that the vaccine was manufactured in a rushed manner and thus it would require approval by the World Health Organization; being previously infected with COVID-19 and considering themselves protected, and placing their trust in God and believing no vaccine was needed.

Conclusion: The willingness to receive a future COVID-19 vaccine was high among medical students. However, some students hesitated to take the vaccine. Therefore, mass media interventions are required to maximize vaccine uptake. Keywords: coronavirus disease 2019, coronavirus, pandemic, vaccine acceptance, vaccine barriers, vaccine hesitancy, vaccine uptake.

Keywords: coronavirus disease 2019, coronavirus, pandemic, vaccine acceptance, vaccine barriers, vaccine hesitancy, vaccine uptake.

How to cite this article: Al-Naggar RA, Alshaikhli H, Al-Rashidi RR, Murtagh S (2022) COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Sana'a, Yemen, Int. J. One Health, 8(1): 58-69.

Received: 18-10-2021 Accepted: 12-04-2022 Published online: 23-06-2022

Corresponding author: Hisham Alshaikhli E-mail: hishamibrahim69@gmail.com

DOI: 10.14202/IJOH.2022.58-69

Copyright: Al-Naggar, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.