METHOD: A cross-sectional study was conducted from September to November 2020 among the guardians of 243 Rohingya refugee children studying under the sponsorship of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center, Malaysia.
RESULTS: Among the 243 children, 90 (37%) were unimmunised, 147 (60.5%) were partially immunised and only 6 (2.5%) were fully immunised. The country of child's birth, the child's age and access to healthcare services were significantly associated with unimmunisation (all P<0.05).
DISCUSSION: This study found low immunisation coverage among Rohingya refugee children in Malaysia. Given the low level of coverage, a public health intervention, such as a vaccination program, for this refugee population is necessary.
METHODS: A series of meticulous planning, healthcare staff training, advocacy, and community engagement activities were conducted by the Penampang District Health Office. Bivalent Oral Polio Vaccine (bOPV) and monovalent Oral Polio Vaccine were administered over the period of 1 year via these methods: house to house, drive-through, static, and mobile posts. The targeted group was 22 096 children aged 13 years and below.
RESULTS: Polio SIAs in Penampang managed to achieve more than 90% coverage for both bOPV and mOPV. The overall vaccine wastage was reported to be 1.63%. No major adverse reaction was reported.
CONCLUSION: High vaccine uptake during Polio SIAs in Penampang was attributed to good inter-agency collaboration, community engagement, intensified health promotion activities, and drive-through vaccination campaign.
METHODS: This was a cross-sectional survey among mothers with children below 5 years from 60 registered child care centers in District of Petaling, Selangor. Data was collected by a self-administered questionnaire from a total of 1015 mothers. Simple Logistic Regression, Chi-square or Fisher's exact test were performed to determine the association between individual categorical variables and childhood immunization defaulters. Multivariate logistic regression was used to determine the predictors of childhood immunization defaulters.
RESULTS: The study showed that the prevalence rate for defaulting immunization was 20.7%. After adjusting all confounders, six statistically significant predictors of childhood immunization defaulters were determined. They were non-Muslims (aOR = 1.669, 95% CI = 1.173, 2.377, p = 0.004), mothers with diploma and below educational background (aOR = 2.296, 95% CI = 1.460, 3.610, p
DESIGN: A cross-sectional study was designed using a survey conducted by the Directorate of Health and Family in 2015.
SETTING: Households, community-based health centres and health committees were surveyed.
PARTICIPANTS: 285 children aged under 2 years with vaccination cards and data on households, health centres and health committees were included.
OUTCOMES: Variables indicating whether a child received each of bacillus calmette-guérin (BCG), diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP3), oral polio (OPV3) and measles vaccination and all of them were outcome variables. Associated factors were identified using multilevel logistic regressions.
RESULTS: Antenatal care at least three times was significantly associated with BCG, DTP3, OPV3 and full vaccination with adjusted ORs ranging from 2.4 (95% CI 1.1 to 5.1) to 3.3 (1.1 to 9.9). The availability of bus to health centre was slightly significant for BCG and OPV3 with the adjusted ORs of 2.0 (0.9 to 4.5) and 2.1 (0.9 to 4.8), respectively. Health committees' budget provision to health centres was significant for OPV3 and full vaccination with the respective adjusted ORs of 15.7 (1.0 to 234.1) and 15.9 (1.2 to 214.7), the wide 95% CIs of which were driven by a small sample size. Health committees' review of expenditure of health centres was significant for measles and full vaccination with the adjusted ORs of 4.0 (1.4 to 11.4) and 5.2 (1.4 to 19.4), respectively.
CONCLUSION: This study suggests that enhancing the utilisation of antenatal care and providing reliable transportation between villages and health centres are required to improve childhood vaccination coverage. Also, the significant association of budget administration of health committees suggests that supporting local health committees for effective financial management is important.