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PLoS One. 2015 May 26;10(5):e0127105. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0127105. eCollection 2015.
Scobie HM1 Ray A2 Routray S2 Bose A2 Bahl S2 Sosler S2 Wannemuehler K3 Kumar R4 Haldar P4Anand A3.
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.
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 1018 children were calculated using survey methods.
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%) omega replicas de relojes 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%).
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.