CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Meningitis is a common occurrence in West African countries located in the meningitis belt. They impose serious challenges on the health, social and economic development of any family where it exists. According to Ogunmekan (2007) cited in Anene (2012) communicable diseases are significant causes of morbidity and it is generally accepted that immunization against common specific infections worldwide is important.
However, information about meningitis and how to prevent them in most cases being emphasized in the news media by government and NGO’s campaign has been casual. George (2002) pointed out that one of the factors accounting to low coverage of immunization is lack of knowledge about the benefits derivable from it. Immunization has gone a long way in helping to save lives of people within the vaccination range. It is expected therefore that efforts should be geared towards creating awareness, persuading families, about meningitis scourge and what to do to curtail its grip on the society. According to WHO (2007) only about 13 percent of Nigerian children are immunized. This has been largely due to lack of information and knowledge about the benefits of immunization. People do not give priority to preventive health for lack of awareness, which also prevents illiterate people in rural areas from accepting such campaign. An average mother is supposed to have adequate knowledge about meningitis vaccine campaign. In most cases, this ideal situation does not exist leading to death of most patients. According to NAN (2014) meningitis disease accounts for 170,000 deaths in the country annually, but there is a registered number of 65 cases with 33 death in 22 states of the federation as at 2011. NAN (2014) further states Anambra State is one of the high risk states lying in the prone meningitis zone.
There is the belief that immunization programme is associated with fertility control hence, a mode of family planning. Lack of adequate information and education on these vaccines has prevented diffusion in rural areas (Omotara et al 2012). This lack of proper diffusion of information on meningitis vaccine campaign can be attributed to inappropriate use of campaign strategies, medium, or channel.
The basic tenet of any campaign is to appeal to the people to change their old behaviours, accept new behaviours or reinforce either of the two. This is where social advertising comes in because it fosters behavioural change. No nation can develop in absence of positive behavioural change. Social advertising is designed to induce the audience to accept a new behavioural pattern, reject an old pattern or modify a current behavioural pattern (Okoye, 2011).
The basic thrust of social advertising is to promote the sales of a behaviour change to a targeted group of individuals. It’s primary purpose is for societal benefit rather than for commercial profit (Smith, 1999). It is imperative therefore to note that the role of serial advertising towards national development is very remarkable as it contributes in no measure towards shaping the attitude of people in various spheres of human endeavors (Tucker, 2014).
Social advertising is used in educating people, creating awareness, inducing and. appealing to people’s emotion, causing widespread diffusion of information. Social advertising has come a long way in Nigeria. From all analysis, it has a lot of influence on the people through presentation of crucial information using either the conventional or social media (Nwasiuzor, 2015). As has been noted before, social or advocacy advertising played a crucial role in creating awareness against the Ebola Virus Disease in Nigeria. The HIV/AIDS scourge has been demystified using social advertising strategies in exposing its modes and making the people armed with the information to deal with it. Today, HIV positive patients no longer hide their identities. They now associate freely as a result of massive social advertising campaigns mounted by both conventional and social media platforms (Okafor, 2011). Also, the use of long lasting treated nets has become a welcome development in many household across the nation. This could be attributed to the use of social advertising campaigns as ensuring wide diffusion of the information regarding the benefits of the INTs as government at various levels run the adverts on social media, conventional media and billboards (Igbobili, 2011).