Abstract
Immunization for children against vaccine-preventable diseases is one of the most important health intervention method in the world, both in terms of its health impact and cost-effectiveness. Through EPI and various other programs such as the Decades of Vaccines, immunization has been improving the health of children around the world. However, this progress falls short of global immunization targets of the Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP). Furthermore, the African region still lags behind in immunization, and suffers from a high proportion of vaccine preventable diseases as a result. Reminders and recall for vaccination have been shown to improve health care-seeking behaviours, and have been recommended for application in routine and supplemental measles immunization activities. With mobile phones becoming more accessible in Africa, SMS vaccine reminder system has been proposed as a convenient and easily scalable way to inform caregivers of the disease and the importance of immunization, to address any concerns related to immunization safety, and to remind them of vaccination schedules and campaigns. There have been 6 published articles and 1 unpublished article on the effect of SMS reminder system for immunization in Africa. The studies done has shown that SMS vaccination reminder has led to improvements in vaccination uptakes in various metrics, whether is through the increase in vaccination coverage, decrease in dropout rates, increase in completion rate, or decrease in delay for vaccination.
Highlights
Immunization for children against vaccine-preventable diseases is one of the most important health intervention method in the world, both in terms of its health impact and cost-effectiveness
There has been no full-scale implementation of SMS vaccine reminder system in Africa at a national level, many studies and smallscale interventions have been done in the African region in the past few years (Table 1)
The primary outcome measure used in most studies are either the completion rate of the whole vaccine set, or the completion rate for pentavalent vaccine 3rd dose or for DPT3, with one study using the decrease in dropout rates as the primary outcome measure
Summary
Immunization for children against vaccine-preventable diseases is one of the most important health intervention method in the world, both in terms of its health impact and cost-effectiveness. In 1974, the World Health Assembly launched the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI), with an aim to increase routine immunization rate around the world [2]. Through EPI and various other programs such as the Decades of Vaccines, immunization has been improving the health of children around the world, and the number of children who did not receive routine vaccinations has dropped to an estimated 19.4 million, down from 33.8 million in 2000 [3]. Immunization coverage for three doses of Hepatitis B vaccine has increased from 29% in 2000 to 84% in 2015 [4] This progress falls short of global immunization targets of the Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP) of 90% or more DTP3 vaccination coverage at the national level and 80% or more in all districts in all countries by 2015. Of the 6 targets of GVAP, 5 of them are off-track, and would not be achieved if no new strategies were found [5]
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