AUTHORS
Radhika Gharpure, Ashley T. Longley, Mayuko Takamiya, Anna Hidle, Manes Munyanyi, Trymore Chawurura, Linda Maxwell, George Mamire, Grace Chaora, Jethro Chakauya, Maxwell Rupfutse, Marc Poncin, Alex Gasasira, Kashmira Date, Portia Manangazira, Nandini Sreenivasan
ABSTRACT
Background
In 2019, following a large outbreak of typhoid fever, the Zimbabwe Ministry of Health and Child Care conducted a typhoid conjugate vaccine (TCV) vaccination campaign in nine high-risk suburbs of Harare. We aimed to evaluate TCV vaccination coverage, vaccine perceptions, and adverse events reported after vaccination.
Methods
We conducted a two-stage cluster survey to estimate vaccination coverage in the campaign target areas among children aged 6 months–15 years and to classify coverage as either adequate (≥75 % coverage) or inadequate (<75 % coverage) among adults aged 16–45 years in one suburb. Questionnaires assessed socio-demographic factors, TCV vaccination history, reasons for receiving or not receiving TCV, adverse events following immunization, and knowledge and attitudes regarding typhoid and TCV.
Results
A total of 1,917 children from 951 households and 298 adults from 135 households enrolled in the survey. Weighted TCV coverage among all children aged 6 months–15 years was 85.3 % (95 % CI: 82.1 %–88.0 %); coverage was 74.8 % (95 % CI: 69.4 %–79.5 %) among children aged 6 months–4 years and 89.3 % (95 % CI: 86.2 %–91.7 %) among children aged 5–15 years. Among adults, TCV coverage was classified as inadequate with a 95 % confidence interval of 55.0 %–73.1 %. Among vaccinated persons, the most reported reason for receiving TCV (96 % across all age groups) was protection from typhoid fever; the most common reasons for non-vaccination were not being in Harare during the vaccination campaign and not being aware of the campaign. Adverse events were infrequently reported in all age groups (10 %) and no serious events were reported.
Conclusions
The 2019 TCV campaign achieved high coverage among school-aged children (5–15 years). Strategies to increase vaccination coverage should be explored for younger children as part of Zimbabwe’s integration of TCV into the routine immunization program, and for adults during future post-outbreak campaigns.
Click here to read the entire article on ScienceDirect.
