Table 4.

Acceptability and perceived safety of vaccines according to laypersons and health actors.

Theme: Acceptability and perceived safety
Sub-Theme: Preference for traditional and religious alternatives over vaccines
1	Man, 0 doses, before campaign	“[Parents] can prevent me from getting vaccines because they will say, “You can’t go for that [vaccine] when there is medicine here; we have such and such medicine.” You will find that any slight problem that I will have, they will call my grandparents to bring medicine, and then they will tattoo me. Eventually, I will just say, “Give me the tattoo because these tattoos are more effective than vaccines.”
2	Vaccinator, after campaign	“Many people were saying [to vaccinators and health workers] that, “Kachasu [local brew] is more effective than the medicine you are giving us. From time memorial, whenever [we] suffered from cholera, we just drank Kachasu.”
3	Woman, 1 dose, after campaign	“Even the time they brought the cholera vaccines, some [people] were saying that, “I am a Christian, the holy spirit will protect me.”
4	NHC member, after campaign	“Some people tell us that they refuse to take the vaccine because there is an increase of Satanism in our country. It looks like they are coming to us using the same medicine [used by Satanists] … So people are refusing the vaccine because they say it is all Satanism.”
Sub-Theme: Lack of information, past experience and social interactions fan fears
5	Man, 0 doses, before campaign	“Like my friend was saying, a long time ago, the whites hated Africans. So they inject Africans so that they can die and whites can have the mines and other stuff.”
6	Vaccinator, after campaign	“The first thing we think about in my opinion is, “Do the white people want to experiment on us or what?” Because you will find that whatever test comes, they bring it to Africa [to try].”
7	Woman, 2 doses, after campaign	“Others when they hear some rumours from the compound such as, “Aww, that medicine (synonymous with vaccine), I had rash; that medicine, I had diarrhoea, (…),” they will not take that medicine and tell all the children not to go to take that medicine. So it’s the rumours.”
8	NHC member, after campaign	“They see that if they went to get that vaccine maybe it will give them a problem. Like if they went to get polio or measles or rubella vaccine, they will say that, “Ah! when that baby was injected there, he reacted, developed a rash, or became sick.” So when people hear that, they say, “Me! I won’t go because my child will get sick.”
9	Man 1 dose, before campaign	“For the children they fear that they be injected wrongly, so they prefer oral medication. Many they will not even reach the hospital for fear of an injection.“
10	Lay HCW, Before campaign	“People prefer oral vaccines, because from what I heard, people believe that injections bring viruses, that you would easily contract the virus.”
11	Man 2 doses, after campaign	“I have heard that people have wrong information. You find that some women will abort the child sometime after taking the vaccine and people will say, “It is because of the vaccine; that is why the unborn baby has died.”
12	NHC member, after campaign	During the second dose [vaccination campaign], we found a woman with her divorced daughter who claimed to have suffered a miscarriage after taking the first dose. The mother then told us that her daughter cannot go for the second dose because it is not safe.”