Khalid Shafi, Faryal Nawab.
Vaccination Practices of Children Under Two Years of Age, Admitted in Tertiary Care Hospital of Karachi, Pakistan.
Ann Abbasi Shaheed Hosp Karachi Med Dent Coll Jan ;21(1):23-8.

Objective: To determine the vaccination practices of mothers for children less than two years of age admitted with the complain of diarrhoea in the Zainab Panjwani Memorial Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan. Methods: A Cross sectional hospital based study was conducted to determine the vaccination practices of mothers whose children were admitted with the complain of diarrhea in the paediatric ward of Zainab Panjwani Memorial Hospital, Karachi. Study was approved by the Ethical Review Board of Zainab Panjwani Memorial Hospital. After taking verbal consent from mothers or caregivers, the data was collected by using a semi-structured questionnaire. The study was conducted from 1st March to 30th April 2015. About 207 mothers were selected through consecutive sampling from paediatric units of Zainab Panjwani Memorial Hospital. Data was entered and analyzed by using SPSS V.21. Results: Out of 207 children 51% were females, 89% of the children were under 1 year of age. About 90% of the children received BCG and OPV at birth, 82.1 % received Pentavalent1+Hib1+OPV1 at 6 weeks, 75.8% were vaccinated with Pentavalent 2 +Hib2+OPV 2 at 10 weeks. About 66.2% children received Pentavalent 3+Hib3+OPV3 at 14 weeks and 52% of the children were vaccinated with Measles vaccine at 9 months of age.The coverage rate was found low to be 30% at 15 months of age. More than 45% of the mothers reported difficulty in accessing vaccination center as the major reason for not getting their children immunized against EPI (Expanded Program of Immunization) vaccine preventable diseases. Conclusion: The practices of mothers for immunization at birth, 6 weeks and10 weeks interval were found more than 90% but at 9 months and 15 months the immunization rate for under 2 years of age child was found below 35%. The mothers should be encouraged through awareness campaign for EPI vaccination to completely immunize their children under two years of age.

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