Presentation

Immunization Service Availability and Readiness in Primary Health Care Units in Pastoral and Semi-pastoral CGPP Ethiopia Implementation Districts, APHA 2019

• Immunization is the most cost-effective public health intervention, providing children with protection from vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs). Vaccines prevent debilitating illness and disability, and save millions of lives every year. Despite the overall success of immunization programs to date, it is estimated that almost 11 million children under 5 years of age die each year globally from VPDs. Especially in developing countries; immunization achievement is still far from the universal target which is less than 95% coverage rate, leading to preventable mortality.
• Equity in access to vaccination remains a challenge and coverage rates vary greatly among countries. Even within countries, where there is greater potential for consistent resource allocation, coverage is uneven. In developing countries that have a poorly functioning health system, it is difficult to ensure equity of access to immunization and, as a result, there may be a high degree of variability in immunization coverage.
• Though currently, Ethiopia has witnessed good improvement in immunization coverage due to the health extension program which deployed more than 30,000 health extension workers at kebelle level and the construction of health posts closer to the community.