KARNATAKA PEDICON 2006

Vinayak Revankar, L.H. Bidari, Nitin Tikare, M. B. Angadi, Shailaja Patil, P. B. Hampanagoudar N. S. Hiremath, A. R. Kotennavar
CHIRAYU, H. T. Bidari Memorial Trust, Dr. Bidari's Ashwini Institute of Child Health & Research Centre, Bijapur. KARNATAKA.

Immunization has been a major preventive cost effective strategy successfully employed over years in India. Ever since the launch of EPIin 1978& UIP in 1985 with promotion through CSSM program& RCH in 1997 there has been considerable progress in control of vaccine preventable diseases, inspite of this still large number of children continue to be afflicted with VPD's every year. Estimated cases exceed the reported numbers. ( Cases admitted in last 2 years in Ashwini Hospital Diptheria 22 Pertussis165. Neonatal tetanus6. Teatanus in older children33)

Factors like unsatisfactory surveillance reporting ( fear of punishment among health workers if true figures are reported) drop outs due various causes have resulted in re emergence of VPD's . Bijapur being one of the socio economically a backward district & coverage levels is low. H. T. Bidari Memorial Trust has undertaken the "CHIRAYU" project to implement Home Based Neonatal Care (HBNC) in 15 neighbouring villages using SEARCH(Society For Education ,Action and Research in Community Health) ,Gadchiroli model. Under this project a preliminary survey was done to assess KAP of ANC, neonatal care & immunization. Here we present KAP towards immunization among mother's of children aged 12-24 months.

Methodology:
Study type: Cross sectional.
Setting : 15 villages of Bijapur taluka. .
Method of data collection : House- House visit , using oral questionnaire..
Study subjects: All Mother's / Guardians of children aged 12-24 months in these villages. .
Results : Total 350 children were in the age group of 12-24 months in our study. Mother's/ Guardian of these children were interviewed. 76% of the respondents told they were aware about one of the six killer diseases in children , among them 50% told they know about Polio. Only 25% were knowing about UIP schedule correctly. 92% of the children received BCG & DPT1 dose , where as only 36% received
Measles vaccine ( After receiving BCG,DPT3)i.e. Fully immunized , drop out rate of 60% . Only 36 % mothers showed immunization card. Major reasons for non / partial immunization were, feared complications after receiving DPT injection( 57%), not aware about necessity& importance of immunization. (39%),

Discussion : Majority respondents were aware about polio50%, rather than seriousness of other VPD's. Few mothers knew correct schedule of UIP25%. The drop out rate of 60% shows factors like fear of side effects after DPT1st dose , lack of information about correct schedule, need & importance of completing the schedule play a role. Similar findings were observed in survey conducted by UNICEF in 2002( MICS) , where only 26% children were found to be fully immunized. In DLHS-RHS survey conducted in 2004 , only 49% children in the age group 12 -24 months were fully immunized. Which is similar to our findings.
The study points out the need to create awareness about VPD's & importance of routine immunization among people through mass media & other communication modes urgently to improve the drop out rate & create demand generation at the same time improving quality of services provided by health functionaries by supportive supervision.

Karnataka Pedicon 2006 - Conference Abstracts.Pediatric Oncall [serial online] 2006 [cited 15 November 2006(Supplement 11)];3. Available from:
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KARNATAKA_PEDICON/sudyof_kap_immunization.asp