Assessing RTS, S malaria vaccine rollout perception in Cameroon: Sentiment analysis from X and facebook using hugging...

Background: The introduction of the RTS, S (Mosquirix®) malaria vaccine in Cameroon represents a significant public health milestone. This study analyzed social media sentiment surrounding the vaccine rollout using natural language processing and machine learning. Methods: Data from Twitter (X) and Facebook (Meta) regarding the RTS, S vaccine in Cameroon was analyzed using the Hugging Face Transformer library for sentiment evaluation. The data was pre-processed, cleaned, and visualized with Matplotlib. Results: The sentiment analysis revealed that 42.0% of reactions were negative, 40.0% were positive, and 18.0% were neutral, indicating a nearly even split between skeptical and supportive viewpoints among Cameroonian users regarding the vaccine rollout. Conclusion: The research highlights the necessity for targeted communication strategies to address public concerns and foster vaccine confidence. Sentiment analysis can act as a real-time tool, offering policymakers valuable insights into public reactions and attitudes toward immunization and other health initiatives. These findings reveal significant public skepticism that must be addressed through evidence-based communication strategies focused on vaccine safety, efficacy data from pilot programs, and engagement with community leaders to counter misinformation.