CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Vaccine preventable diseases remain the most common causes of childhood mortality with an estimated three million deaths each year. Immunization reminder/recall systems are cost-effective methods whereby children in need of vaccination are identified and contacted to come to the Health Facilities. (WHO, 2010)

Reminder systems track future appointments, whereas recall systems track missed appointments during which immunizations would have been given.

Dropout in immunization refers to children who have used immunization services, but do not return for subsequent vaccinations and should not exceed 10 percent; beyond that, it indicates a problem of either access or utilization of services. In most settings where full immunization coverage is low, most children receive at least one dose of Pentavalent, but the proportion that receive the needed second and third doses drops steeply. Dropout rates are calculated as the percentage point difference between successive doses of a vaccine, expressed as a percentage of the first dose. (HMIS News.Htm. Sept 22 2011 pg 1)

The second indicator of utilization of the preventive services at PHC level, which is immunization coverage, is measured by the percentage of children under one year old who have received the appropriate immunizations. (National Primary Health Development Agency 2018)

The indicator is calculated as the total number of children under one year old that have received all their immunizations up to the first measles, divided by the total population of children under one year old in a given area. This study was carried out to institute and determine the effect of the use of mobile phone recall on immunization dropout rate in Udu Local Government Area, Delta State.

1.2       STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Vaccine preventable diseases remain the most common causes of childhood mortality with an estimated three million deaths each year, (WHO, 2010).

reminder/recall systems are cost-effective methods whereby children in need of vaccination are identified and contacted to come to the Health Facility. Reminder systems track future appointments, whereas recall systems track missed appointments during which immunizations would have been given.

Dropouts in immunization refer to children who have used immunization services, but do not return for subsequent vaccinations and should not exceed 10 percent; beyond that, it indicates a problem of either access or utilization of services. In most settings where full immunization coverage is low, most children receive at least one dose of Penta, but the proportion that receive the needed second and third doses drops steeply. Dropout rates are calculated as the percentage point difference between successive doses of a vaccine, expressed as a percentage of the first dose. For example, the dropout rate between the first(Penta1) and third (Penta 3) doses of Penta is calculated by subtracting the cumulative total for Penta 3 from the cumulative total for Penta 1 divided by the cumulative of Penta 1 all multiplied by 100%. (Penta 1- Penta 3)/Penta 1.

Immunization dropout would cause loss of immunity in children as the immunization cycle has been broken. In addition, it would result in the repetition of the process of immunization and becomes a wasted effort.

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