Determinants of Missed Opportunities for Vaccination Among Children Aged Under 5 Years in Nairobi County

Abstract

Vaccination is a set of processes in which a person or child becomes immune to an infectious and fatal illness by receiving a vaccine. World Health Organization (WHO) indicates that vaccination activates defensive mechanism of the body to secure against future disease or infections (WHO, 2017). In the least developed countries, 10 million deaths are reported every year among children. These reported deaths result from the lack of access to effective interventions such as child vaccination, which would help prevent childhood illnesses (Excler, Privor-Dumm, & Kim, 2021).

According to Jayaweera and Wijesinghe (2018), children in underdeveloped nations still lack access to immunization against lethal diseases such as measles, diphtheria and tetanus, which happen to be scarce in developed countries. Globally, approximately 20% of all newborns do not receive life-saving immunizations (Jayaweera & Wijesinghe, 2018). Although the rates of immunization have been high globally in the past years, in 2014, more than one-third of youngsters in India were not completely immunized. Over the past decade, India has consistently increased its vaccination rates, where every needed vaccine uptake increasing from eight to approximately 23% in the national immunization uptake in India's National Immunization Schedule (NIS-4).

The Indian Government put in place a mission Indradhanush, a large state wide initiative, in the year 2014, that immunized almost 25.5 million at-risk children over the course of 2 years. Des, a 2016 report undertaken jointly by the WHO, UN, and the Government of India's MOH and welfare of family found that approximate immunization figures seemed to be overstated by governmental vaccination uptake records. Progress toward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 3), reducing child deaths, remained inadequate. The study highlighted the difficulties the administration had in recognizing and correcting "over looked immunization" chances for youngsters. A missed occassion for vaccination (MOV) is described by the WHO as any encounter between an eligible child or adult and a health care provider that does not result in the full immunization series for which the patient is eligible.