Abstract
The uptake of Routine immunization services continues to decline in Oyo State despite best efforts to improve Routine Immunization (RI) services. This study aims to investigate the root cause of poor routine immunization uptake in the State using Ibadan north and Kajola Local Government Areas (LGAs) as sentinel study sites in Oyo state, Nigeria. A cross-sectional Community survey was conducted between 26<sup>th</sup>-30<sup>th</sup> November 2018 using structured questionnaires uploaded onto Open Data Kit-collect (ODK) mobile software in the 2 LGAs namely Kajola and Ibadan North LGAs, Oyo state. Majority of the respondents Local Immunization Officers, RI Focal Persons, Other Health Workers and Community Members were fully aware of RI services, its benefits/importance and were mostly satisfied with the services they received at their community health facility. However, 95% of the respondents stated that they were not part of the RI planning processes in their communities neither were they actively involved in selecting the date, time or venue for RI in their communities. Also 76% of the respondents stated that Health workers neither rescheduled RI sessions for missed children neither did they visit /track the missed children. Functional Village Development Committees (VDCs) and updated Reaching Every Ward (REW) micro-plan was not present in 67% and 62% of the visited facilities respectively. World Health Organization (WHO) was mostly responsible for funding of immunization activities. Funding and poor engagement with members of the communities have been discovered to be a major contributing factor to poor immunization uptake in these LGAs. We advise that this gap be bridged for the purposes of improved RI uptake in the state.
Highlights
Childhood immunization is regarded as an important indicator of a healthy childhood because it assures the protection from major childhood diseases. [1]
Guidelines states that one child should receive four doses of Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV), Science Journal of Public Health 2021; 9(3): 77-82 three doses of Hepatitis B, Diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus and Haemophilus influenza type b vaccines, and one dose each of measles, Baccile Calmette-Guerin (BCG) and yellow fever vaccines by the age of one [7]
Oyo state comprises 33 Local Government Areas (LGAs) with Ibadan north and Kajola being the LGAs of focus in this study
Summary
Childhood immunization is regarded as an important indicator of a healthy childhood because it assures the protection from major childhood diseases. [1]. In 1974, World Health Organization (WHO) launched the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) aimed at controlling six-childhood diseases namely: tuberculosis, diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), tetanus, poliomyelitis and measles [4]. Nigeria’s EPI aims to immunize all children between the ages of 0 and 23 months against eight vaccine-preventable diseases, which include, in addition to the above-mentioned diseases, hepatitis B (introduced in 2002) and Hemophilus influenza type b (introduced in 2008) [5, 6]. Guidelines states that one child should receive four doses of Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV), Science Journal of Public Health 2021; 9(3): 77-82 three doses of Hepatitis B, Diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus and Haemophilus influenza type b vaccines, and one dose each of measles, Baccile Calmette-Guerin (BCG) and yellow fever vaccines by the age of one (year) [7]. Millions of children die from vaccinepreventable diseases [9, 10]
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