Status of expanded program on immunization in a rural town--south Ethiopia

A community based cross-sectional survey was conducted in a randomly selected kebele of Zway town, eastern Shoa, Kilil 4, to assess the status of expanded program of immunization. A total of 309 children aged 12-23 months were entered into the study. Fifty-three per cent of the children were fully immunized, 19% were defaulters and the rest were totally not immunized. The main reason for defaulting were inconvenience of vaccination time, child sickness and lack of information about the need for repeated vaccination. The main reasons for not being immunized were lack of faith in vaccination, not knowing its availability and lack of time. Inconsistent outreach programs and weak health education were the major rectifiable causes of the low coverage and high defaulter rate. Strengthening of the health education and outreach programs and development of mechanism for follow-up and defaulter tracing are recommended.