Radio Waves Lead the Charge in Mozambique’s Fight Against Polio
Mozambique is leveraging its extensive community radio network to combat a recent polio outbreak, reaching even the most remote populations with vital vaccination facts.
A polio vaccination team wound its way on foot toward a row of grass-roofed houses in a small village in Inhambane province, Mozambique, but the message reached them first through the airwaves. Mixed with the sounds of children playing and a rooster calling was a radio show – a lifeline of information in the country’s most isolated corners. Nearly 300 miles away,in Maputo,broadcasters like Stela Mapanga are at the forefront of this effort,leading programming for some 86 community radio stations spanning Mozambique’s diverse provinces and languages.
In the lead-up to nationwide vaccination campaigns, these stations air shows like “Field of Development” and “Health and Life,” focusing journalists’ attention on public health initiatives. “A major part of the country uses radio,” explained josé Trindade, chief of the technical department at the National Educational Radio and Television of Mozambique’s Institute of Social Dialog (ICS). “Radio can use local languages and is cheaper to establish then TV, so it can be the best media to reach people in Mozambique.” With an estimated 18 million people tuning in, community radio represents a powerful tool in the effort to eradicate polio.
Mozambique has been battling a polio outbreak since 2022, triggered by a case in neighboring Malawi – a three-year-old girl confirmed to have wild polio. Just three months later, the first case of polio-induced paralysis within Mozambique was identified in a boy in northern Tete province. This marked the country’s first case of wild polio since 1992, when the end of Mozambique’s 16-year civil war allowed for a renewed focus on vaccination efforts. Polio, a highly infectious viral disease spread through contaminated water and food, has no cure and can cause paralysis, particularly in children under five. by the end of 2022, eight more children were disabled by the wild virus, which genetic tracing revealed originated in Pakistan, one of the two countries where polio remains endemic.Further poliovirus variants then affected 26 additional children across the nation, signaling a resurgence of the disease in southern Africa.
An epidemic was declared, prompting Mozambique’s Ministry of Health to launch both targeted regional and national vaccination drives. Working in collaboration with UNICEF, the World Health Organization, and other Global Polio Eradication Initiative partners, the goal was to deliver two drops of the oral polio vaccine to every child. The country’s wild polio virus outbreak was officially closed in May 2024, but vaccination continues to address circulating variants using the nOPV2 vaccine.
Making Waves with Polio Messaging
Reaching every child presents a meaningful challenge in a country characterized by vast distances, limited infrastructure, and remote communities.Vaccinators must navigate localized conflicts, particularly in the northern Cabo Delgado province, address the needs of internally displaced populations, account for high population mobility across six bordering countries, and contend with the impacts of climate change.Even the radio equipment used to inform communities about approaching vaccination teams has been damaged by both cyclones and conflict.
Within this complex surroundings, Mozambique’s extensive community radio network, operating under ICS, is considered a “strategic ally in health promotion,” according to Denizia Pinto, UNICEF’s social behavior change coordination and polio outbreak response lead, who also oversees communication training for journalists. “In the polio resp
