Final Report (PDF, 2132K) - Measure DHS

6.3 Child Health IndicatorsThe ODHS Survey obtained information on immunisation coverage and the incidence andtreatment of diarrhoea, fever and respiratory ailments among children under five. Data collection waslimited to the children of women interviewed in the survey. Therefore, information is unavailable forchildren whose mothers were dead, living out of the state, institutionalized, or who, for any other reason,were not interviewed in the survey. Although the immunisation status and the morbidity experiences ofchildren excluded from the survey probably differs from that of children whose mothers wereinterviewed, the number of such children is small. Thus, the results presented here are considered todescribe the health status of children under five in Ondo State.Immunisation of ChildrenIn the survey, women who had children under five years of age were asked if these children hadhealth cards. If the answer was affirmative, the date of each immunisation was copied from the card ontothe questionnaire by the interviewer. The immunisation data were collected for tuberculosis (BCG),diphtheria, whooping cough (pertussis) and tetanus (DPT), poliomyelitis and measles. If a child had nocard, or the interviewer could not examine the card, the mother was asked if the child had ever received avaccination. For these children, information about specific immunisations was not obtained.Table 6.'6 indicates that health cards were seen for only about 25 percent of children under the ageof five. All children with cards had received at least one vaccination. An additional 46 percent ofchildren did not have a card available but were reported by their mothers to have been immunlsed. Thus,about 70 percent of children under the age of five in Ondo State may be presumed to have received atleast one immunisation.Information on specific immunisations is shown in Table 6.6. The World Health Organisation's(WHO) recommended schedule for childhood immunisation is given below (Sherris et al., 1986).According to this schedule children should be fully immunised by one year of age.AgeImmunisationsBirthBCG6 weeks DPT, Polio10 weeks DPT, Polio14 weeks DPT, Polio9 months MeaslesThe ODHS indicates that among children age 12-23 months with immunisation cards (an agegroup that according to WHO standards should be fully immunised), almost 100 percent had received aBCG vaccination and the first dose of DPT and polio vaccine. About 75 percent had been vaccinatedagainst measles. The proportions decrease between the first and third dose for both DPT and polio. Ofchildren 12-23 months with immunisation cards, 67 percent were fully immunised (i.e., had receivedBCG, three doses each of DPT and polio, and measles).60