| Popis: |
Background Pneumonia and diarrhea remain the leading infectious causes of mortality and morbidity in children under 5 years of age. 1According to the study carried out by WHO in 2017 the coverage of rotavirus is 23% while that of pneumococcal vaccine is 43% which accounts for serious health issues in children.2 An estimated 1 in 40 infants experience a severe episode of rotavirus gastroenteritis annually in Pakistan.3 Objective The objective of this study was to determine the frequency of diarrhea and pneumonia in vaccinated and unvaccinated children less than 5 years of age: A single center study Methods A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted in Department of Pediatrics at Darul Sehat Hospital and SESSI, Karachi from 1st November to 3rd February 2019.The 196 respondents were selected by convenience sampling and interview based questionnaire was administered. Variables such as age, gender, duration of illness, history of previous episodes, breastfeeding, number of vaccines, type of vaccines, reason for vaccination and not vaccinated were asked from participants. Results A total of 196 questionnaires were interviewed from mothers of children aged 1–60 months. 98 (52.7%) of the total was male and 88(47.3%) were females. Participants that received vaccination for rotavirus and pneumococcal vaccine were 172(88.7%) while 22(11.3%) remain unvaccinated. Incidence of watery diarrhea accounts for 66(63.5%). Frequency of diarrhoea was mild in 29(33.7%), moderate in27 (31.4%) and severe in 30(34.9)% in vaccinated children where as it was mild in 02(11.1%) moderate in 04 (22.2%) and severe in 12 (66.7%) in unvaccinated children with p value being 0.035. Frequency of severe pneumonia was far less then frequency of cough and cold in vaccinated participant as compared to unvaccinated participant with p value being Conclusion Human rotavirus and pneumococcal vaccines significantly reduced the occurrence of severe rotavirus gastroenteritis and acute respiratory tract infection. The research concludes that vaccination might not have significantly reduced the disease burden but has definitely reduced the severity of both diseases. |
