Abstract

ABSTRACT Background: Immunization prevents approximately 4 lakh under-five deaths from vaccine preventable diseases in India. Immunization is a proven cost-effective and relatively inexpensive public health intervention for improving child survival. Under the national immunization program infants are immunized against 7 vaccine preventable disease namely diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, hepatitis B, tuberculosis and measles. In India, inequity in the coverage of immunization persists within and between states, emphasizing the continuing need of coverage assessment surveys with a focus on quality of the health service. Aims &
Objective: (1) To assess the primary immunization coverage of children aged 12-23 months; and (2) To know the reasons for partially or not immunizing the child.
Materials and Methods: This was a cross sectional study. The method was adapted from WHO 30 cluster sampling, a two stage sampling technique involving a random selection of clusters based on probability proportional to size and then a random selection of households in the selected clusters. Mothers of the children were interviewed using a pretested and semi- structured questionnaire.
Results: Out Of the 210 surveyed children, 104 (49.5%) were males and 106 (50.5%) were females. Coverage was highest for BCG (100%) followed by DPT1 (99.5%), DPT3 (95.7%) and lowest for Measles (93.8%). As far as the dropout rate is concerned, it was 3.83% for both DPT1 to DPT3, 3.38% for OPV1 to OPV3, 4.83% for HEP1 to HEP3 and 6.19% for both BCG to measles and 5.74% for DPT1 to Measles. Amongst the various reasons main reasons for dropout or non-immunization of children were the lack of awareness about the need for immunization in 38.70% and unawareness of the need to return for 2nd or 3rd doses in 25.58%. Conclusion: Improvement should focus on reducing the dropout rate from DPT1/OPV1/HepB1 to DPT3/OPV3/HepB3 and improving coverage of measles and also Vitamin A.