Abstract
ObjectiveTo review the data, for 1999–2013, on state-level child vaccination coverage in India and provide estimates of coverage at state and national levels.MethodsWe collated data from administrative reports, population-based surveys and other sources and used them to produce annual estimates of vaccination coverage. We investigated bacille Calmette–Guérin vaccine, the first and third doses of vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, the third dose of oral polio vaccine and the first dose of vaccine against measles. We obtained relevant data covering the period 1999–2013 for each of 16 states and territories and the period 2001–2013 for the state of Jharkhand – which was only created in 2000. We aggregated the resultant state-level estimates, using a population-weighted approach, to give national values.FindingsFor each of the vaccinations we investigated, about half of the 253 estimates of annual coverage at state level that we produced were based on survey results. The rest were based on interpolation between – or extrapolation from – so-called anchor points or, more rarely, on administrative data. Our national estimates indicated that, for each of the vaccines we investigated, coverage gradually increased between 1999 and 2010 but then levelled off.ConclusionThe delivery of routine vaccination services to Indian children appears to have improved between 1999 and 2013. There remains considerable scope to improve the recording and reporting of childhood vaccination coverage in India and regular systematic reviews of the coverage data are recommended.
Highlights
The landscape of routine child immunization in India is changing rapidly.[1,2,3] The national government declared 2012–2013 to be a period of intensification in child immunization, with a focus on remote and often inaccessible rural areas, urban slums and migrant and mobile communities.[4]
There are data available on administrative coverage – i.e. data on the immunization services delivered by health providers – potentially useful information on vaccination coverage is collected in coverage evaluation surveys, process and community monitoring, surveillance on vaccine-preventable diseases, integrated disease surveillance and the management of the cold chains used in the storage and transport of vaccines
As part of a workshop held on 30 April –1 May 2015, with state representatives, we – i.e. the members of a review team that included staff from India’s national immunization programme and their counterparts from the India-based offices of the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and WHO’s Regional Office for South-East Asia – reviewed data obtained after 1998 on child vaccination coverage
Summary
The landscape of routine child immunization in India is changing rapidly.[1,2,3] The national government declared 2012–2013 to be a period of intensification in child immunization, with a focus on remote and often inaccessible rural areas, urban slums and migrant and mobile communities.[4] Subsequently, in December 2014, India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare launched Mission Indradhanush. There are data available on administrative coverage – i.e. data on the immunization services delivered by health providers – potentially useful information on vaccination coverage is collected in coverage evaluation surveys, process and community monitoring, surveillance on vaccine-preventable diseases, integrated disease surveillance and the management of the cold chains used in the storage and transport of vaccines
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