Resilience of routine childhood immunization services in two counties in Kenya in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic-

Abstract

  27 Oct 2023
Harriet Mirieri, Carolyne Nasimiyu, Jeanette Dawa, Caroline Mburu, ... Jorim Ayugi
ABSTRACT
The recently emerged coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused considerable morbidity and mortality worldwide and disrupted health services. We describe the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on utilization of childhood vaccination services during the pandemic. Using a mixed methods approach combining retrospective data review, a cross-sectional survey, focus group discussions among care givers and key informant interviews among nurses, we collected data between May and September 2021 in Mombasa and Nakuru counties. Overall, there was a <2 % decline in the number of vaccine doses administered during the pandemic period compared to the pre-pandemic period but this was statistically insignificant, both for the pentavalent-1 vaccine (ß = −0.013, p = 0.505) and the pentavalent-3 vaccine (ß = −0.012, p = 0.440). In government health facilities, there was 7.7 % reduction in the number of pentavalent-1 (ß = −0.08, p = 0.010) and 10.4 % reduction in the number of pentavalent-3 (ß = −0.11, p < 0.001) vaccine doses that were administered during the pandemic period. In non-government facilities, there was a 25.8 % increase in the number of pentavalent-1 (ß=0.23, p < 0.001) and 31.0 % increase in the number of pentavalent-3 (ß = −0.27,
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Open AccessArticle