Demographic

10.2.2 Level and Trend in Vaccination CoverageAccording to the guidelines developed by the World Health Organization, children are consideredfully vaccinated when they have received by the age of 12 months a vaccination against tuberculosis(BCG); three doses of the diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), and tetanus (DPT) vaccine; three dosesof the poliomyelitis (polio) vaccine; and one dose of the measles vaccine. BCG should be given at birth orat first clinical contact, DPT and polio require three vaccinations at approximately 6, 10, and 14 weeks ofage, and measles should be given at or soon after reaching 9 months of age. In addition to this basicschedule of vaccinations, it is also recommended that babies in Swaziland be given a polio vaccination atthe time of birth and three doses of the hepatitis B vaccine before reaching their first birthday.Table 10.2 shows the percentage of children who have received the various vaccinations bysource of information, that is, from a health card or mother’s report. In order to focus on recent coveragelevels, the table is restricted to children 12-23 months of age who are the youngest cohort of children tohave reached the age by which they should be fully vaccinated.Table 10.2 Vaccinations by source of informationPercentage of children age 12-23 months who received specific vaccines at any time before the survey, by source of information (vaccination cardor mother's report), and percentage vaccinated by 12 months of age, Swaziland 2006-07Source ofDPT Polio 1 Hepatitis Binformation BCG 1 2 3 0 1 2 3 1 2 3 MeaslesAll basicvaccinations2NovaccinationsVaccinated at anytime before surveyHealth card 83.9 83.7 83.7 82.4 83.8 83.9 83.9 82.9 83.1 83.1 82.1 79.4 78.3 0.0 447Mother's report 13.3 12.2 10.7 9.2 9.2 13.0 11.3 4.4 12.4 11.5 9.0 12.1 3.4 2.5 84Either source 97.2 96.0 94.5 91.7 93.1 97.0 95.2 87.3 95.5 94.6 91.1 91.5 81.7 2.5 531Vaccinated by12 months of age 3 97.0 95.4 93.8 90.2 92.8 96.3 94.6 85.9 95.2 94.0 89.6 82.7 73.7 2.9 531Numberofchildren1Polio 0 is the polio vaccination given at birth.2BCG, measles, and three doses each of DPT and polio vaccine (excluding polio vaccine given at birth)3For children whose information was based on the mother's report, the proportion of vaccinations given during the first year of life was assumed tobe the same as for children with a written record of vaccination.Taking into account both the information on the child’s health card and the mothers’ report, theresults in Table 10.2 indicate that 82 percent of children age 12-23 months received all recommendedvaccinations, that is, a BCG and measles vaccination and three doses of the DPT and polio vaccines, atsome point before the survey interview. Only 3 percent of the children had never been vaccinated againstany of these childhood illnesses at the time of the SDHS. As Figure 10.1 shows, the proportion ofchildren age 12-23 months fully immunised at the time of the SDHS was 17 percentage points higher thanthe rate (65 percent) prevailing at the time of the 2000 MICS survey (CSO, nd).Child Health | 129