An experience of mass administration of fractional dose inactivated polio vaccine through intradermal needle-free injectors in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan

Abstract

Background Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) campaign was conducted in February 2019 in Karachi where needle-free injectors were introduced for the administration of the fractional dose of IPV (fIPV) on a large scale. This study aimed to determine the impact of needle-free injectors on vaccination coverage. Methods In four towns of Karachi, fIPV was given using needle-free injectors “PharmaJet Tropis ID”. Whereas, in six towns full dose of IPV was administered to children of 4–59 months of age. Cluster surveys through rapid convenience assessment method were conducted after the completion of vaccination activity. Results A total of 33,815 households’ data was analyzed. Among these, 27,650 (82.8%) children were vaccinated. In fIPV areas, 85.3% of children were vaccinated compared to 79.5% in full dose IPV areas. A comparison of reasons for unvaccinated showed that 1.6% of parents do not give importance to vaccination in fIPV areas compared to 4.2% in full IPV areas (p-value < 0.0001). More children were not vaccinated due to fear of injection 1.8% in full IPV areas compared to 0.7% in fIPV areas (p-value < 0.0001). The source of campaign information shows that more frequent mobile miking 3.1% was observed in fIPV areas compared to 0.4% in full IPV areas (p-value < 0.0001). Conclusions Our analysis supports the fractional dose of IPV in mass campaigns to achieve good vaccination coverage especially using needle-free injectors “PharmaJet Tropis ID” and vigorous social mobilization activities are expedient in accomplishing high coverage.

Vaccine Hesitancy and Perceptions of the Community about Polio in High-Risk Areas of Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan

“…We found that people who work in the polio program (i.e., front-line workers) were the main source of awareness regarding the polio campaigns and vaccination, followed by the media (television). A previous study also showed that social mobilization and community health worker visits improved awareness and injectable polio vaccine coverage in the community settings of Karachi, Pakistan [ 16 ]. Our study findings are contrary to those of a study by Facciolà et al, who reported that TV was the main source of the information regarding vaccination in the community [ 17 ].…”

Improved DNA Vaccine Delivery with Needle-Free Injection Systems

“…Additionally, patients report a preference and may react less to NFIS delivery compared to traditional delivery methods [ 56 , 57 , 59 , 60 ]. Thus, NFIS are considered an attractive alternative to NS in mass vaccination campaigns [ 57 , 59 , 60 , 65 ], especially in more remote or rural areas with limited resources where delivery via NFIS can also be more cost-effective than NS delivery [ 66 ]. Indications for which NFIS have recently been used to deliver prophylactic DNA vaccines include COVID-19, HIV, Zika, HPV, influenza, dengue, polio, and measles–mumps–rubella viral infections [ 17 , 30 , 54 , 57 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 ], staphylococcal and tuberculosis bacterial infections [ 25 , 27 ], and malarial and cryptococcal parasitic infections [ 23 , 28 ].…”

Strategies for vaccine-product innovation: Creating an enabling environment for product development to uptake in low- and middle-income countries

“…In addition, the use of needles and syringes for administration was associated with the potential for needle re-use. Over past decades, there have been efforts to develop and implement new vaccine-product innovations to overcome some of these delivery and administration barriers and four are described in these case studies ( Box 1 , Box 2 , Box 3 , Box 4 , [18] , [19] , [20] , [21] , [22] , [23] , [24] , [25] , [26] , [27] , [28] , [29] , [30] , [17] , [31] , [32] , [33] , [34] , [35] , [36] , [37] , [38] , [39] , [40] , [41] , [42] , [15] , [16] , [43] , [44] , [45] , [46] , [47] , [48] , [49] , [50] , [51] , [52] , [53] , [54] , [55] , [56] , [58] , [59] , [60] , [61] , [62] , [63] , [64] , [65] , [66] , [67] , [68] , [69] , [70] , [71] , [72] , [73] , [74] , [75] , [76] ).…”