DISCREPANCIES IN VACCINATION AND IMMUNIZATION COVERAGE OF MEASLES,TETANUS AND HEPATITIS B AMONG CHILDREN AGED 12-23 MONTHS IN NAROK COUNTY,KENYA

Abstract

Background: The burden of childhood vaccine preventable diseases (VPD) is high in Narok County despite vaccinations. The objective was to determine discrepancies in vaccination coverage and serologically confirmed immunization coverage among 378 children aged 12-23 months.

Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study. The immunization coverage is the proportion of vaccinated children with positive serological IgG antibody test of tetanus, hepatitis B, and/or measles in blood serum. A stratified sampling technique was used and data analysis was done using SAS-software. Data were presented in form of frequencies, percentages and heat maps.

Results: The mean age of children was 15.3 (SD=3.7) months and 255 (67.5%) were aged <17 months. Up to 195(51.6%) children were female. The full vaccination coverage was 66.4% (251/378) while serologically confirmed immunization coverage was 32.8% (124/378). The vaccination coverage for measles virus containing vaccine (MCV1) was 202(79.2%) while serologically confirmed immunization coverage was 151 (59.2%) among children aged <17 months while it was 98 (79.7%) against 78 (63.4%) among children aged ≥17 months. The vaccination coverage for children who received both MCV1 & MCV2 was 68(55.3%) while serologically confirmed immunization coverage was 62 (50.4%) among aged ≥17 months. For tetani toxoid vaccine: the vaccination and serologically confirmed immunization coverage were 185 (72.5%) and 133 (52.2%), respectively for children aged <17 months who received all 3 doses while those aged ≥17 months was 86 (69.9%) and 71 (57.7%), respectively. For children who received 3 doses of hepatitis B vaccines, vaccination coverage was 185 (72.5%) while serologically confirmed immunization coverage was 146 (57.3%) among those aged <17 months while it was 86(69.9%) against 73 (28.6%) among children aged ≥ 17 months, respectively.

Conclusion: Low serologically confirmed immunization coverage (32.8%) and associated high discrepancies (>10%) indicated ineffectiveness of vaccinations and high vulnerability (47.6%) of children to measles, tetanus and hepatitis B.