Opportunistic Immunization With In- Patient Programme: Eliminating a Missed Opportunity in Calabar, Nigeria

Background: Immunization is the most cost-effective tool for disease prevention. Several factors militate against completing immunization. Missed opportunities to vaccinate are one of the barriers to immunization. Methods: The immunization cards of all the children aged 5 years and below admitted into the paediatric wards of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Calabar, Nigeria, were compared with the history. Results: Immunization status of 919 patients was ascertained. Only 560(60.9%) were fully immunized for age, 244(26.6%) partially immunized and 115(12.5%) had no form of immunization. The prevalence of missed opportunity was 39.1%. Most (64.9%)of these patients were in the lower socio- economic groups .The commonest reason for missing immunization was illness of the child at time of immunization. Immunization was given to 124(34.5%) before discharge, 71(19.8%) at follow-ups, 31(8.6%) loss to follow-up and 15(4.2%) rejected immunization. Conclusion: Immunization coverage is still low and many children on admissions have not completed immunization. We can reduce missed opportunity to immunize if medical personnel crosscheck immunization history with immunization cards at each visit to a health facility and appropriate immunization offered. In-patient immunization programmes should be incorporated into the paediatric practice in our country.