Familienmedizin und medizinische Wissenschaftsforschung
Offener Zugang

Abstrakt

Immunization Status of Internally Displaced Iraqi Children During 2017

Lujain Anwer Al-Kazrajy* and Thikra Hussein Hattat

Background: Childhood immunization is the initiation of immunity through application of vaccine as it is considered important for improving child survival. Iraq, currently has about 4 million internally displaced persons, which represents 10.8% of its population and 10% of internally displaced persons worldwide.
Objectives: This study was conducted to assess the immunization status among displaced Iraqi children and to find out if there was any association between immunization status and other variables (Parents occupation and educational levels, child order in his family, marital status of the mother, Presence of vaccination card before or after displacement).
Methodology: A cross sectional study was conducted in four displacement camps in Baghdad with 400 participants of under five years children along nine months duration, data were collected using a questionnaire which was adapted from many literatures with some modification, chi square test was used to show level of association, p value <0.05 considered as significant.
Results: The highest coverage rate for displaced children after displacement was for the first dose of Oral Polio Vaccin (OPV1)+ first dose of Penta Vaccine (PENTA1) (Hexa) and the first dose of ROTA virus vaccines (77.5%), while the lowest vaccination coverage was for the second booster dose of OPV2 nd+ second dose of Dyptheria, PertusIs, Tetanus toxoid vaccines (DPT 2nd booster) in addition to Mumps, Measles, Rubella (MMR) vaccines (40.5%). A highly significant association was found between unvaccinated displaced children and illiterate mothers (p<0.001), while a significant association was observed between unvaccinated displaced children and fathers graduated from primary school. Significant association between the birth order of displaced children (≥ 5) and low vaccination coverage.
Conclusion: Highly significant association was found between the vaccination coverage rates before and after displacement. Moreover significant difference between parents educational level, birth order, marital status of the mother, presence and absent of the vaccination card and vaccination team visits to the household (after displaced) and the immunization status.