Abstract:

Background: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a fatal viral disease that continues to afflict many countries around the world, it is transmitted when people breathe in air contaminated by droplet/aerosols and small airborne particles containing the virus. Globally, as of 21 June 2023, there have been 768,187,096 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in which 43,078 are from Tanzania, also 6,945,714 deaths have been reported to WHO. As of 11 march 2023, a total of 13,398,054,518 vaccine doses have been administered worldwide and 39,392,419 vaccine doses have been administered in Tanzania (12). Administration of the vaccines is a crucial step in the prevention of the disease spread, COVID-19 in particular. However, the current data suggest not every person targeted for COVID-19 vaccination has been vaccinated. Different barriers have been documented as barriers which prevent people to be vaccinated against COVID-19 vaccines, such factors include lack of information on the vaccines’ uptake schedule and their safety. The factors have been documented in general population. There is lack information towards the acceptance and barriers among the youths, particularly, university students and the vaccine that are available are the mRNA vaccines. Moderna (by Moderna Biotech) and Comirnaty (by Pfizer/BioNTech), and the viral vector vaccine Vaxzevria (by AstraZeneca)(8).

Objective: To assess the Barriers, Awareness and Acceptance of Covid-19 Vaccine among Non-Medical University Students in Nyamagana Mwanza.

Methodology: It is a cross-sectional survey study, conducted from July to August 2023, which recruited all non-medical university students in Nyamagana Mwanza (IFM, CBE and SAUT) students who met the inclusion criteria were enrolled into the study and a questionnaire was administered in English, the questionnaire focused on collecting information based on barriers, awareness and acceptance of covid-19 vaccines. The study data were collected, recorded and analyzed using a computer program SPSS version 20.

Results: The study shows majority age between 23 to 27 years (91.6%), of these (50.3%) were males and (41.3%) were females. Also, most students had high barriers with unwillingness to vaccinate and are contributed by discouragement from peers and relatives and majority of them 84.9% had poor acceptance of covid-19 vaccination.

Conclusion: The study shows substantially large number of students with high barrier, poor acceptance rate as well as good awareness toward covid-19 vaccination. With most students 84.9% not vaccinated, and more than a half 52.4% not having intention to vaccinate which all contribute to poor uptake rate of covid-19 vaccination among non-medical university student in Mwanza.