Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on routine childhood immunisation in Colombia.
Arch Dis Child
; 107(3): e4, 2022 03.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1319389
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:
To assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on routine childhood vaccination coverage in Colombia by age group, rural/urban residence, state and vaccine type.DESIGN:
Ecological study of official monthly vaccination records.SETTING:
Vaccination records from the Colombian Ministry of Health (March-October 2019 and 2020).PARTICIPANTS:
Aggregated data for Colombian children (<12 months, n=676 153; 12-23 months, n=700 319; and 5 years, n=734 295) participating in the Expanded Program on Immunization. MAIN OUTCOMEMEASURES:
Proportion of eligible population receiving vaccination.RESULTS:
Vaccination coverage showed an overall decline of approximately 14.4% from 2019 to 2020 (2019 coverage=76.0, 2020 coverage=61.6%). The greatest reduction in proportion vaccinated was observed in children <12 months of age for pneumococcal vaccine (second dose) (2019 coverage=81.4%; 2020 coverage=62.2%; 2019-2020 absolute difference, 19.2%; 95% CI 14.8% to 23.7%). For children aged 12-23 months, the proportion vaccinated for yellow fever declined by 16.4% (12.4% to 20.9%) from 78.3% in 2019 to 61.8% in 2020. Among children 5 years of age, the biggest decrease occurred for the oral polio vaccine (second dose), with a difference of 11.4% (7.1% to 15.7%) between 2019 and 2020 (73.1% and 61.7% for 2019 and 2020). We observed a statistically significant effect on vaccine coverage in rural versus urban areas for children <12 months and 5 years of age.CONCLUSIONS:
Reduced uptake of immunisations during the COVID-19 pandemic poses a serious risk of vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks. Colombia and other middle-income countries need to continue to monitor immunisation programme coverage and disease outbreaks at the national and subnational levels and undertake catch-up vaccination activities.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Immunization Programs
/
Vaccination Coverage
/
Pandemics
/
Vaccine-Preventable Diseases
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Vaccines
Limits:
Child, preschool
/
Humans
/
Infant
Country/Region as subject:
South America
/
Colombia
Language:
English
Journal:
Arch Dis Child
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Archdischild-2021-321792
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS