Latest News
December 2025: Paper published
Our paper "Maternal and child healthcare-seeking among victims of violence in armed conflict: A quasi-experimental study in northeast Nigeria" has been published in BMJ Global Health. You can find the paper (open-access) here: https://gh.bmj.com/content/10/12/e019494
September 2025: New Preprint
We finished and uploaded a new preprint with the title "Caregivers Qualitative Insights on Trust, Resilience and Vaccine Hesitancy Shaping Child Health in Conflict-affected Northeast Nigeria", which draws on data from our focus group interivews. You can find it on MedRxiv here: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.18.25335857
March 2025: First empirical paper online
Our first empirical paper based on survey data collected last year is available online as a preprint on MedRxiv. It is entitled "Maternal and child healthcare-seeking among victims of violence in armed conflict: A quasi-experimental study in northeast Nigeria" and can be found here: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.11.25323760
February 2025: Systematic Review published
Our systematic review on "Armed violent conflict and healthcare-seeking behavior for maternal and child health in sub-Saharan Africa" was published by PLOS ONE. The Open Access article can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0317094
September 2024: First round of survey data collection concluded
In mid-September, the ViVac team completed data collection for the first round of our longitudinal survey. Over 3,000 interviews were conducted in more than 50 locations in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states. This is despite the many challenges due to security concerns and environmental conditions, especially flooding. The photos show typical interview situations and a screenshot from a video of our enumerators preparing to cross a stream.
June 2024: Qualitative data collection concluded
The ViVac Nigeria team completed qualitative data collection in Adimawa, Borno and Yobe states. In each of the three states, 10 key informant interviews (KIIs) and 3 focus group discussions (FDGs) were conducted, transcribed, and translated from Hausa to English. We are currently in the process of analyzing the data and publications will be forthcoming. The next step will be to launch the first round of our longitudinal survey. The photo below shows a FDG in Maiduguri.
February 2024: Pilot study KIIs and FDGs
The Nigeria team successfully piloted the questionnaires and protocols for the key informant interviews (KIIs) and the focus group discussions (FDGs).
January 2024: Cooperation agreement signed
On 31 January, the agreement for cooperation under the ViVac project was signed by Prof. Dr. Abdurrahman Abba Sheshe, Chief Medical Director of Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH), and Prof. Dr. Max Schaub during a signing ceremony at AKTH in Kano, Nigeria.
