title: Trends of immunisation status of the children and women attending an urban diarrhoea hospital in Bangladesh.
abstract: Since October 1988 the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh has been offering immunisations to children less than 2 years old and women of reproductive age (15 to 45 years) who report for treatment at its Dhaka-based treatment centre. A survey conducted during October 1989 to June 1992 has revealed that 22.5% of these targeted children (n = 4,456) and 21.7% of the women (n = 5,266) had not received any immunisations. Only 23.2% of the children had completed an immunisation schedule, whereas 70.1% of the women had received 2 doses of tetanus toxoid. The percentage of women receiving both doses of tetanus toxoid vaccine increased significantly from 55.2% to 80.5% during the survey period (Chi Square = 9.47, p = 0.002). However, the percentage of children receiving all doses of vaccines against the six communicable diseases increased only from 15.8% to 23.4% (Chi Square = 1.13, p = 0.29) during the reporting period. Our observation shows that it is possible to cover a significant percentage of women with at least 2 doses of tetanus toxoid vaccine. However, immunisation services need to be intensified utilising all the health centres to improve immunisation coverage for the children.
authors.affiliation: International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka.
authors.forename: A K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Rahman
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Islam
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001459:Bangladesh; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003140:Communicable Disease Control / Q000639:trends; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D007114:Immunization / Q000639:trends*; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D011322:Primary Prevention; D014505:Urban Population