Innovative approach in assessing the children's immunization status when it cannot be documented

During surveys, it is recommended that children immunization status should be based on immunization documents. It has been noted that in some communities, a number of children are claimed to be vaccinated but have no evidence of vaccination. This work is proposed to estimate routine immunization cov...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of public health in Africa Vol. 14; no. 9; p. 7
Main Authors Ateudjieu, Jerome, Tchio-Nighie, Ketina Hirma, Ndinakie Yakum, Martin, Goura, André P., Amada, Lapia, Sonkoua, Isaac, Wakam Nkontchou, Blaise, Kenfack, Bruno
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published PAGEPress Publications, Pavia, Italy 01.10.2023
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Summary:During surveys, it is recommended that children immunization status should be based on immunization documents. It has been noted that in some communities, a number of children are claimed to be vaccinated but have no evidence of vaccination. This work is proposed to estimate routine immunization coverage in children based on both documented vaccination and the tracking of undocumented immunization. It was a community‑based survey targeting children aged 0‑59 months in which the immunization status of children was assessed based on vaccination documents and based on a questionnaire tracking immunization sites and period for children with undocumented vaccination. The vaccination coverage and completeness were estimated from data collected in immunization cards and re‑estimated after tracking the immunization status of children with no immunization cards. Of 1435 children reached in households, 1430 (99.7%) were included. Of 1072 children aged 12‑59 months, 194 (18.1%) received DPT‑Hi+Hb 3 with evidence and 399 (37.2%) with evidence and tracking. In the same age group, the dropout rate from DPT‑Hi+Hb 1 (157 doses administered) to DPT‑Hi+Hb 3 (127 doses administered) with evidence was 19.1% and 42.4% with evidence and tracking. The tracking of immunization status in children with no evidence of vaccination allows to determine their immunization status and to improve the reliability of the estimated vaccination coverage. This strategy could be adopted to be part of the planning and implementation of vaccination coverage surveys of EPI vaccines.
Bibliography:The authors declare no potential conflict of interest.
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Availability of data and material
The protocol has received ethical approval from the Cameroon National Ethics Committee (2018/07/1058/CE/CNERSH/SP) and administrative authorization from the Cameroon Ministry of Public Health (631-19-18). Prior to participation in this study, all heads of households were informed of the survey, and their consent was required before any data was collected in the household. No personal data were collected.
Not applicable.
Conflict of interest
Ethical approval and consent to participate
The manuscript does not contain any individual person's data in any form.
Informed consent
JA, design, coordination of the project, and draft of the manuscript; JA, NMY, APG, data collection monitoring; KHTN, NMY, APG, LA, IF, BK, writing, and revision of the manuscript. All the authors approved the final version to be published.
ISSN:2038-9922
2038-9930
DOI:10.4081/jphia.2023.2450