Immunization coverage among children aged 12-23 months: A cross sectional study in low performing blocks of Bihar, India

INTRODUCTION: Immunization is one of the most cost-effective measures in public health to date, preventing at an approximately 2 to 3 million fatalities in young children every year. As per recent World Health Organisation (WHO) bulletin, these lifesaving vaccines have been successfully averted around 20 million premature deaths and 500 million disease cases. Inspite of this progress the routine vaccine coverage is slow to rise as challenges still live for the underserved, inaccessible and vulnerable children. It is therefore essential to evaluate the coverage of immunization at periodic intervals and to take the required measures to enhance the vaccination status in the State Bihar. AIMS AND OBJECTIVE: This study aims to find out the vaccination coverage in different Blocks of study area. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study was community based cross sectional study which was conducted between January to March 2019 in the selected villages of 59 low performing blocks of Bihar. The study subjects were all the children aged 12-23 month old from selected low performing blocks of the Bihar. Results-Corrected FIC of the study was 90.85%. Close to nine percent (8.8%) children thou have started vaccination could not able to complete it. Rest of the beneficiaries are completely left out. The most common reason for incomplete immunization was unavailability of child on the day of vaccination followed by sickness of the child. CONCLUSION: The overall Immunization coverage of Bihar is less than the National Immunization coverage as per NFHS-4. This study shows higher rate of immunization as far as Corrected Immunization Coverage is concerned.