scholarly journals Assessment of Strengths and Weaknesses of Inactivated Polio Vaccine Practices in Qasimabad, Pakistan

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 10
Author(s):  
Imdad Ali Channa ◽  
Khalida Naz Memon ◽  
Nimra Zaman

Objectives: The objectives of the study were to assess the strengths and weaknesses of inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) practices in Qasimabad, Pakistan. Material and Methods: This cross-sectional survey study was conducted in Hyderabad, Sindh, from June 22, 2017, to September 22, 2017. It included seven expanded programs on immunization (EPI) centers in Taluka Qasimabad, as well as outreach settings. Data were collected through convenience sampling with the help of an EPI Monitoring Checklist and a pre-designed questionnaire. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 23.0 was used for the descriptive analysis. Results: Six of the seven health facilities were found to be screening for missed opportunities. During power outages or load shedding, the majority of EPI centers (85.7%) had a backup plan in place. However, the major shortcoming was the failure to obtain parental consent before vaccination by vaccinators at all 7 (100%) EPI centers. At 5 (71.9%) of the centers, outreach activities to vaccinate children were organized, and IPV was only given to infants at 1 (19.2%) of the sessions. The vaccinator opened the vial before using it, and the used IPV vial was not discarded at the end of the outreach session. Because one center’s vaccinator was female (19.2%), and another center’s vaccinator was single (19.2%), no outreach activity was planned at those two locations. Conclusion: This research highlights the benefits and drawbacks of the current EPI program for the IPV vaccine. The presence of EPI centers at all health facilities, as well as the availability of IPV and cold chain equipment, as well as permanent and fully-trained employees, are some of the most important strengths. Lack of pre-service training and adverse events following immunization vaccine training were identified as weaknesses. There are a lack of IPV refresher training, as well as improper arrangements for outreach vaccination sessions, and a lack of transportation for vaccinators.

Author(s):  
Moshin Raza ◽  
Saira Azhar ◽  
Ghulam Murtaza ◽  
Akash Syed ◽  
Anam Khan ◽  
...  

Objective: Recent studies and surveys are detecting an ambiguous trend of routine immunization coverage and fully immunized children in KPK. Pakistan. A cross-sectional survey was conducted to access immunization status among children of age group 12-23 months visiting fixed EPI centers in primary, secondary and tertiary health facilities in rural and urban areas. Methods: The study covered 436 children in five health facilities. Five fixed EPI centers are visited as per office order: BBS teaching hospital Abbottabad. (DHQ), Women and children hospital Abbottabad. (THQ), Type D hospital Havelain, Basic Heath Unit (BHU) Mangal and Ayub teaching hospital Abbottabad (AMI). A pretested structured questionnaire was used to collect information. Analysis was performed on SPSS version 23 for frequencies, cross tabulation and percentages. Results: Estimation recorded fully immunized children as 275 (63.1%), partially immunized as 155 (35.6%), and unimmunized as 6 (1.3%). Only 157 (36.1%) children in rural area were fully immunized compared to 118 (27.1%) in urban. Primary respondents were mothers 320 (73.4%) whereas, father and other respondents are almost 13%. Vaccination cards were available with 386 (88.5%) respondents. High proportion of partially immunized children 77% in BHU. However, unimmunized 1.96% and 4.4% children in AMI and Type D hospital were present. Moreover 67% partially immunized are from rural origin. The coverage of various vaccines was BCG 421 (96.6%), Pentavalent 403 (96.6%): Penta-1 60 (13.8%), Penta-2 38 (8.7%), Penta-3 305 (70.0%), and Measles 375 (86.0%): Measles-1 127 (29.1%), Measles-2 248 (56.9%), and Polio 430 (98.6%): Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV-0) 51 (11.7%), OPV-1 32 (7.3%), OPV-2 44 (10.1%), OPV-3 165 (37.8%), Injectable polio vaccine (IPV) 138 (31.7%), Pneumococcal 409 (93.8%): Pneumo-1 75 (17.2%), Pneumo-2 46 (10.1%), Pneumo-3 288 (66.1%). No Sex-wise discrimination was found. Conclusion: Hard work in policy making is needed to strengthen routine immunization programme in marginalized areas like rural areas (83.12% of KPK and 62.5% of Pakistan) with special emphasis on BHUs and groups such as those living in mountainous terrain. Inaccessibility, inconvenience and unavailability of timely EPI services at BHUs are among various reasons of unimmunized and partially immunized children. Targeted intervention are needed with special emphasis on people in slum and rural areas with low educational and socioeconomic status.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Kakame ◽  
Noel Namuhani ◽  
Andrew Kazibwe ◽  
Felix Bongomin ◽  
Joseph Baluku ◽  
...  

Abstract BackgroundThe incidence of tuberculosis (TB) is high in Uganda; yet, TB case detection is low. A recent national TB prevalence survey revealed that only 16% of presumptive TB patients seeking care at health facilities were offered sputum microscopy or chest-X ray (CXR). The objective of this study was to determine the magnitude of, and patient factors associated with missed opportunities in TB investigation at public health facilities of Wakiso District in Uganda.MethodsA facility-based cross-sectional survey was conducted at 10 high volume public health facilities offering comprehensive TB services in Wakiso, Uganda, among adults (≥18 years) with at least one symptom suggestive of TB predefined according to World Health Organisation criteria. Using exit interviews, data on demographics, TB symptoms, and clinical data relevant to TB were collected. A missed opportunity in TB investigation was defined as a patient with symptoms suggestive of TB who did not have sputum and/or CXR evaluation to rule out TB. Poisson regression analysis was performed to determine factors associated with missed opportunities in TB investigation using STATA 14.ResultsTwo hundred forty seven presumptive TB patients were recruited into this study exiting at antiretroviral therapy (ART) clinics (n=132) or general outpatient clinics (n=115) at public health facilities. Majority of participants were females (161/247, 65.2%) and the mean +SD age was 35.1 + 11.5 years. Sputum and/or CXR were not requested from 138 (55.9%) patients with symptoms suggestive of TB disease. Patients who did not inform health workers about TB related symptoms were more likely to miss a TB investigation (adjusted prevalence ratio: 1.68, 95%CI; 1.36-2.08, P<0.001). Conclusion; A large proportion of patients with symptoms suggestive of TB did not have sputum and/ or CXR requested for investigation. Patients who did not inform health workers about their TB related symptoms were more likely to miss having sputum and/ or CXR requested. We recommend studies to explore barriers and facilitators of disclosure of TB symptoms to enable formulation of effective interventions to empower people to improve likelihood of disclosing TB related symptoms.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Twirire Kakame ◽  
Noel Namuhani ◽  
Andrew Kazibwe ◽  
Felix Bongomin ◽  
Joseph Baruch Baluku ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The incidence of tuberculosis (TB) is high in Uganda; yet, TB case detection is low. The population-based survey on the prevalence of TB in Uganda revealed that only 16% of presumptive TB patients seeking care at health facilities were offered sputum microscopy or chest-X ray (CXR). This study aimed to determine the magnitude of, and patient factors associated with missed opportunities in TB investigation at public health facilities of Wakiso District in Uganda. Methods A facility-based cross-sectional survey was conducted at 10 high volume public health facilities offering comprehensive TB services in Wakiso, Uganda, among adults (≥18 years) with at least one symptom suggestive of TB predefined according to the World Health Organisation criteria. Using exit interviews, data on demographics, TB symptoms, and clinical data relevant to TB diagnosis were collected. A missed opportunity in TB investigation was defined as a patient with symptoms suggestive of TB who did not have sputum and/or CXR evaluation to rule out TB. Poisson regression analysis was performed to determine factors associated with missed opportunities in TB investigation. Results Two hundred forty-seven (247) patients with presumptive TB exiting at antiretroviral therapy (ART) clinics (n = 132) or general outpatient clinics (n = 115) at public health facilities were recruited into this study. Majority of participants were female (161/247, 65.2%) with a mean + SD age of 35.1 + 11.5 years. Overall, 138 (55.9%) patients with symptoms suggestive of TB disease did not have sputum and/or CXR examinations. Patients who did not inform health workers about their TB related symptoms were more likely to miss a TB investigation (adjusted prevalence ratio (aPR): 1.68, 95%CI; 1.36–2.08, P < 0.001). However, patients who reported duration of cough of 2 weeks or more were less likely to be missed for TB screening (aPR; 0.69, 95%CI; 0.56–0.86, p < 0.001). Conclusion There are substantial missed opportunities for TB diagnosis in Wakiso District. While it is important that patients should be empowered to report symptoms, health workers need to proactively implement the WHO TB symptom screen tool and complete the subsequent steps in the TB diagnostic cascade.


2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Winnie Thembisile Maphumulo ◽  
Busisiwe Bhengu

The National Department of Health in South Africa has introduced the National Core Standards (NCS) tool to improve the quality of healthcare delivery in all public healthcare institutions. Knowledge of the NCS tool is essential among healthcare providers. This study investigated the level of knowledge on NCS and how the NCS tool was communicated among professional nurses. This was a cross-sectional survey study. Purposive sampling technique was used to select hospitals that only offered tertiary services in KwaZulu-Natal. Six strata of departments were selected using simple stratified sampling. The population of professional nurses in the selected hospitals was 3 050. Systematic random sampling was used to recruit 543 participants. The collected data were analysed using SPSS version 25. The study showed that only 16 (3.7%) respondents had knowledge about NCS, using McDonald’s standard of learning outcome measured criteria regarding the NCS tool. The Pearson correlation coefficient between the communication and knowledge was r = 0.055. The results revealed that although the communication scores for the respondents were high their knowledge scores remained low. This study concluded that there is a lack of knowledge regarding the NCS tool and therefore healthcare institutions need to commit themselves to the training of professional nurses regarding the NCS tool. The findings suggest that healthcare institutions implement the allocation of incentives for nurses that attend the workshops for NCS.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khanh Ngoc Cong Duong ◽  
Tien Nguyen Le Bao ◽  
Phuong Thi Lan Nguyen ◽  
Thanh Vo Van ◽  
Toi Phung Lam ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND The first nationwide lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic was implemented in Vietnam from April 1 to 15, 2020. Nevertheless, there has been limited information on the impact of COVID-19 on the psychological health of the public. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of psychological issues and identify the factors associated with the psychological impact of COVID-19 during the first nationwide lockdown among the general population in Vietnam. METHODS We employed a cross-sectional study design with convenience sampling. A self-administered, online survey was used to collect data and assess psychological distress, depression, anxiety, and stress of participants from April 10 to 15, 2020. The Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) and the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) were utilized to assess psychological distress, depression, anxiety, and stress of participants during social distancing due to COVID-19. Associations across factors were explored using regression analysis. RESULTS A total of 1385 respondents completed the survey. Of this, 35.9% (n=497) experienced psychological distress, as well as depression (n=325, 23.5%), anxiety (n=195, 14.1%), and stress (n=309, 22.3%). Respondents who evaluated their physical health as average had a higher IES-R score (beta coefficient [B]=9.16, 95% CI 6.43 to 11.89), as well as higher depression (B=5.85, 95% CI 4.49 to 7.21), anxiety (B=3.64, 95% CI 2.64 to 4.63), and stress (B=5.19, 95% CI 3.83 to 6.56) scores for DASS-21 than those who rated their health as good or very good. Those who self-reported their health as bad or very bad experienced more severe depression (B=9.57, 95% CI 4.54 to 14.59), anxiety (B=7.24, 95% CI 3.55 to 10.9), and stress (B=10.60, 95% CI 5.56 to 15.65). Unemployment was more likely to be associated with depression (B=3.34, 95% CI 1.68 to 5.01) and stress (B=2.34, 95% CI 0.84 to 3.85). Regarding worries about COVID-19, more than half (n=755, 54.5%) expressed concern for their children aged &lt;18 years, which increased their IES-R score (B=7.81, 95% CI 4.98 to 10.64) and DASS-21 stress score (B=1.75, 95% CI 0.27 to 3.24). The majority of respondents (n=1335, 96.4%) were confident about their doctor’s expertise in terms of COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment, which was positively associated with less distress caused by the outbreak (B=–7.84, 95% CI –14.58 to –1.11). CONCLUSIONS The findings highlight the effect of COVID-19 on mental health during the nationwide lockdown among the general population in Vietnam. The study provides useful evidence for policy decision makers to develop and implement interventions to mitigate these impacts. CLINICALTRIAL


Author(s):  
Kagan Kircaburun ◽  
İrfan Süral ◽  
Evita March ◽  
Sabah Balta ◽  
Emrah Emirtekin ◽  
...  

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