POST 00996E : QUALITY VS IMMUNIZATION COVERAGE

POST 00996E : QUALITY VS IMMUNIZATION COVERAGE Follow-up on Posts 00972E, 00976E and 00986E 20 October 2006 ___________________________________________ This posting contains two contributions. The first originally in French is from Lydie Maoungou Minguiel (mailto:[email protected]) from Congo-Brazza. And the second from Anthony Battersby (mailto:[email protected]) from the United Kingdom. ___________________________________________ Hello everybody, I agree with all the issues raised by Adelaide and I'd like to add that from my experience in Congo Brazzaville, systematic de-worming of children during routine immunisation and distribution of paracetamol to mothers of children who have received DPT to combat fever and the ensuing pain, improves the acceptance of immunisation by mothers. Thank you and good day. Dr Lydie MAOUNGOU MINGUIEL, EPI Deputy Administrator --------------------------------- I am interested in the comment made by Giridhar: "Northern Karnataka, some parts of Bihar and UP in India are classical examples to watch for the phenomenon of " lack of demand for immunization being a major reason for unsatisfactory coverage"." This highlights the very limited usefulness of precoding the answers gathered during coverage surveys. What does "lack of demand" mean? Does it mean the mother/carer does not understand about the benefits of immunisation? or does she understand but not accept, or does she understand but she has other higher priorities such as obtaining food. The road to quality begins with our fully understanding both why people have their children immunised as well as why they do not. To do this the coverage survey protocol should always have the interviewer ask both those who did have their children immunised as well as those who did not and record the answer given verbatim so that it can be analysed later. Operationally these answers are the most useful part of a coverage survey, we should pay more attention to collecting the answers and their analysis. Anthony Battersby FBA Health Systems Analysts ______________________________________________________________________________ All members of the TechNet21 e-Forum are invited to send comments on any posting or to use the forum to raise a new discussion or request technical information in relation to immunization services. The comments made in this forum are the sole responsibility of the writers and do not in any way mean that they are endorsed by any of the organizations and agencies to which the authors may belong. ______________________________________________________________________________ Visit the TECHNET21 Website at http://www.technet21.org You will find instructions to subscribe, a direct access to archives, links to reference documents and other features. ______________________________________________________________________________ To UNSUBSCRIBE, send a message to : mailto:[email protected] Leave the subject area BLANK In the message body, write unsubscribe TECHNET21E ______________________________________________________________________________ The World Health Organization and UNICEF support TechNet21. The TechNet21 e-Forum is a communication/information tool for generation of ideas on how to improve immunization services. It is moderated by Claude Letarte and is hosted in cooperation with the Centre de coopération internationale en santé et développement, Québec, Canada (http://www.ccisd.org) ______________________________________________________________________________