CLUSTER SURVEY EVALUATION OF A MEASLES VACCINATION CAMPAIGN IN JHARKHAND, INDIA, 2012

Friday, 29th of May 2015

CLUSTER SURVEY EVALUATION OF A MEASLES VACCINATION CAMPAIGN IN JHARKHAND, INDIA, 2012

Scobie HM, Ray A, Routray S, Bose A, Bahl S, Sosler S, et al. (2015)

PLoS ONE 10(5): e0127105.

 

Abstract below; full text, with figures, is at http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0127105

Introduction

India was the last country in the world to implement a two-dose strategy for measles-containing vaccine (MCV) in 2010. As part of measles second-dose introduction, phased measles vaccination campaigns were conducted during 2010–2013, targeting 131 million children 9 months to <10 years of age. We performed a post-campaign coverage survey to estimate measles vaccination coverage in Jharkhand state.

Methods

A multi-stage cluster survey was conducted 2 months after the phase 2 measles campaign occurred in 19 of 24 districts of Jharkhand during November 2011–March 2012. Vaccination status of children 9 months to <10 years of age was documented based on vaccination card or mothers recall. Coverage estimates and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) for 1,018 children were calculated using survey methods.

Results

In the Jharkhand phase 2 campaign, MCV coverage among children aged 9 months to <10 years was 61.0% (95% CI: 54.4–67.7%). Significant differences in coverage were observed between rural (65.0%; 95% CI: 56.8–73.2%) and urban areas (45.6%; 95% CI: 37.3–53.9%). Campaign awareness among mothers was low (51.5%), and the most commonly reported reason for non-vaccination was being unaware of the campaign (69.4%). At the end of the campaign, 53.7% (95% CI: 46.5–60.9%) of children 12 months to <10 years of age received ≥2 MCV doses, while a large proportion of children remained under-vaccinated (34.0%, 95% CI: 28.0–40.0%) or unvaccinated (12.3%, 95% CI: 9.3–16.2%).

Conclusions

Implementation of the national measles campaign was a significant achievement towards measles elimination in India. In Jharkhand, campaign performance was below the target coverage of ≥90% set by the Government of India, and challenges in disseminating campaign messages were identified. Efforts towards increasing two-dose MCV coverage are needed to achieve the recently adopted measles elimination goal in India and the South-East Asia region.

Academic Editor: Ulla Kou Griffiths, London School of Hygiene replicas de relojes de lujo españa and Tropical Medicine, UNITED KINGDOM

Received: January 14, 2015; Accepted: April 10, 2015; Published: May 26, 2015

This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication