Above. Rego (left center) at the Leda Refugee Camp outside Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, with research partners (l-r) Sirajul Islam, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh; Ashok Kumar Barman, Medical Director-Leda Diarrhea Treatment Center icddr,b; and A. K. M. Zakir Hossain, Senior Field Research Officer—conducting meetings with community leaders to refine their survey on vaccination decision-making.
Ryan Rego, Impact Scholar with the Center for Global Health Equity, was in Bangladesh recently working with research partners there to lead a large study on vaccine hesitancy. The survey will engage 1600 households from four populations within Bangladesh:
- Permanent residents of informal settlements in Dhaka
- Recently arrived residents of informal settlements in Dhaka who were forced from their homes in the Bangladeshi coastlands due to climate change
- Permanent residents of Teknaf, a region in southeast Bangladesh near to the Myanmar border
- Recently arrived refugees of the Leda Refugee Camp—just outside Cox’s Bazar and just miles from the Myanmar border—who were forced to leave Myanmar
Population 2 are considered internally displaced persons (IDPs), because they were forced to leave their homes but did not have to leave their country of residence. Population 4 are considered refugees because they had to cross a national border in their forced migration. 1 and 3 are people who live there normally, not displaced.
The photos below tell some of the story around Rego and team’s research as they meet with community leaders to refine their surveys on vaccination decision-making. By better understanding vaccine hesitancy and delay, they hope their work will support improved healthcare, access, and communication around vaccines leading to increased uptake and reductions in vaccine-preventable diseases.