Timeliness Vaccination of Measles Containing Vaccine and Barriers to Vaccination among Migrant Children in East China

Tuesday, 26th of November 2013

[source]PLoS One[|source]

Receiving the vaccination within a recommended age period has become an important issue in many countries. Numerous studies suggested that a certain proportion of the target population lacking timely vaccination could contribute to measles outbreaks, even if the overall coverage of those people was high. Consequently, the importance of the recommended vaccination schedule has been reinforced in National Immunization Program (NIP) of many countries. 

In this article, the authors studied MCV coverage rate and its timeliness in children aged ≥8 months in Yiwu. The authors also report on the possible barriers to timely MCV vaccination. In a program where more than half of vaccinated children received their measles dose outside the recommended period, this article calls for review of the age category that should be recommended and used in programs. More details are available at:  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3755000/

 

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The reported coverage rates of first and second doses of measles containing vaccine (MCV) are almost 95% in China, while measles cases are constantly being reported. This study evaluated the vaccine coverage, timeliness, and barriers to immunization of MCV₁ and MCV₂ in children aged from 8–48 months.

METHODS: We assessed 718 children aged 8–48 months, of which 499 children aged 18–48 months in September 2011. Face to face interviews were administered with children s mothers to estimate MCV₁ and MCV₂ coverage rate, its timeliness and barriers to vaccine uptake.

RESULTS: The coverage rates were 76.9% for MCV₁ and 44.7% for MCV₂ in average. Only 47.5% of surveyed children received the MCV₁ timely, which postpone vaccination by up to one month beyond the stipulated age of 8 months. Even if coverage thus improves with time, postponed vaccination adds to the pool of unprotected children in the population. Being unaware of the necessity for vaccination and its schedule, misunderstanding of side-effect of vaccine, and child being sick during the recommended vaccination period were significant preventive factors for both MCV₁ and MCV₂ vaccination. Having multiple children, mother s education level, household income and children with working mothers were significantly associated with delayed or missing MCV₁immunization.

CONCLUSIONS: To avoid future outbreaks, it is crucial to attain high coverage levels by timely vaccination, thus, accurate information should be delivered and a systematic approach should be targeted to high-risk groups.