Age-appropriate vaccination against measles and DPT-3 in India - closing the gaps

作者：Awofeso Niyi^*; Rammohan Anu; Iqbal Kazi

来源：BMC Public Health, 2013, 13: 358.

DOI：10.1186/1471-2458-13-358

• Measles
• Vaccination schedule
• India
• Age-appropriate vaccination

Background: In 2010, India accounted for 65,500 (47%) of the 139,300 measles-related deaths that occurred globally. Data on the quality of age-appropriate measles vaccination in rural India is sparse. We explored the following issues: (i) What proportion of Indian children were appropriately vaccinated against measles at 9 months of age, and DPT-3 at 4 months? (ii) Which health facilities administered measles vaccine to children prior to 9 months of age and DPT-3 prior to 14 weeks? %26lt;br%26gt;Methods: We analyzed data from the 2008 Indian District Level Health Survey (DLHS-3) to determine the extent of age-appropriate measles and DPT-3 vaccinations. Among 192,969 households in the dataset, vaccination cards with detailed records were available for 18,670 children aged between 12 and 23 months. %26lt;br%26gt;Results: Among this cohort, 72.4% (13,511 infants) had received the first dose of measles vaccine. Only 30% of vaccinated infants received the measles vaccine at the recommended age of 9 months. Similarly, only 31% of infants in the cohort received DPT-3 vaccine at the recommended age of 14 weeks. About 82% of all prematurely vaccinated children were vaccinated at health sub-centres, ICDS and Pulse Polio centres. %26lt;br%26gt;Conclusions: Age-inappropriate vaccination impacts adversely on the effectiveness of India%26apos;s measles immunisation program due to sub-optimal seroconversion, if premature, and increased vulnerability to vaccine preventable diseases, if delayed. Capacity building approaches to improve age-appropriate vaccination are discussed.

• 出版日期2013-4-17