Abstract

Objective
To determine the complete coverage of childhood immunization in children under five years of age and to determine the reason of non-immunization in these children.
Methods
This prospective cross-sectional study was conducted at Creek General Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan from  1st January 2019 to 30th July 2019. All children 1-5 years of age irrespective of age of either gender attending the out-patient department were consecutively enrolled. Immunization status was noted by taking history from parents/guardians and immunization card as well, if available. Reason of non-vaccination was also noted.
Results
Of 287 children, vaccination at birth was reported by 276 (96.2%), at 6 weeks by 264 (92%), at 10 weeks by 256 (89.2%), at 14 weeks by 241 (84%), at 9 months by 230 (80.1%), and at 15 months by 220 (76.7%). Significant association was observed in between concern about vaccine safety and religion (p-value 0.013), vaccine safety and household head (p-value 0.017), long distance and birthplace (p-value 0.001), lack of money and access to media (p-value 0.044), absence of personnel and household head (p-value 0.007), child sickness and child age (p-value 0.048), child sickness and mother’s age (p-value <0.001), forgetting the day of vaccination and mother’s age (p-value 0.001), forgetting the day of vaccination and mother’s education (p-value 0.021), and complications from previous injection and mother’s age (p-value 0.040).
Conclusion
The findings of the current study have revealed that complete vaccination in children under five years is still very low even in urban city of Pakistan.