Td Vaccination Campaign - Overview from an Urban Slum of Cuttack District of Odisha

Abstract

Background: World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended replacement of TT vaccine by Td vaccine since 1998. Based on this and several other recommendations, the Government of India introduced Td vaccination for children aged 10 and 16 years as well as for pregnant women on 14th August 2019.1 Objective: Monitoring of Td vaccination drive campaign and identification of shortcomings in an urban slum of Cuttack, Odisha. Methodology: A community-based cross-sectional study was carried out by visiting all the session sites on the day of the vaccination drive covering 10 schools and 3 community outreach sessions from 1st to 15 th September 2019. 281 children studying in classes 5th and 10th i.e., aged 10 and 16 years respectively were vaccinated with Td Vaccine during the campaign. Session sites were selected by simple random sampling method and data was collected by interviewing ASHAs and ANMs using a checklist for monitoring of session sites available at the MoHFW website. Result: All session sites were conducted according to micro-plan. Supervisors visited 16% of session sites during the campaign. All the logistics were available in sufficient quantities at all the session sites. None of the session sites used a zipper pouch for storing the vaccine vials, or tally sheets for marking, or a register for keeping the count of used vials. In 20% of the session sites, recapping of the needle was done by the Multipurpose Health Worker (female). Conclusion: Although the arrangements for conducting the vaccination drive at session sites including schools were commendable but a few lacunas were observed.Most of the schools did not maintain a register of the absentees for tracking them in the community session sites by the social mobilizers (ASHA). All the observed shortcomings could have been overcome with proper microplanning.