Coverage, timeliness, and determinants of immunization completion in Pakistan

Routine immunization services in Pakistan: seeing beyond numbers

“…Punjab, the most densely populated province, currently outperforms other provinces, while coverage has declined over time in Sindh and Baluchistan provinces (Figure 1). Antigen-specific coverage, although higher than rates of completed vaccination, shows attrition over serial doses, indicating a decline in follow-up vaccination, a pattern unchanged over several years (3,4,(23)(24)(25). Polio immunization, however, remains consistently high for subsequent doses ( Figure 2) (20).…”

“…Vaccine demand is correlated with parental knowledge of vaccine importance, parental education and socioeconomic status (43,47,48). Published data indicate that higher maternal education is positively associated with vaccine uptake (4,10,14,22). Despite rising trends in vaccination uptake over time, the rate of vaccine uptake is slower among parents of lower education levels, thus highlighting the need to develop advocacy and communication strategies specifically designed to address caregivers with little educational attainment ( Figure 4) (14,21,(49)(50)(51).…”

“…Most public facilities in Pakistan function between 09.00 and 14.00 hours, thus limiting access to services to a few hours in the day. Women attending antenatal services, receiving prenatal tetanus vaccinations or delivering at a health facility were more likely to have their children vaccinated (4,10,13,48), indicating that positive health-seeking behaviours are associated with improved uptake of services over time and between generations.…”

“…Home to one of the largest birth cohorts in the developing world (2), Pakistan continues to struggle to improve routine immunization services among its under-2-year-old population of more than 10 million (3,4). The sheer size of the target population presents an opportunity to intervene and achieve significant reductions in infant and child mortality at the local and regional level.…”

Immunisation knowledge and practices among mothers attending a paediatric clinic in Karachi, Pakistan

“…A recent study in Pakistan also reported that private healthcare facilities do not offer routine immunisation. 18 Child Immunization service in Pakistan is almost exclusively provided by the public sector and the private sector provides only about 3% of the vaccines. 4 There is a need for integration between private and public Health services to make these vaccines more accessible.…”