A survey on Measles and Rubella Supplementary Immunization Activities (SIAs) in Iran

Background: Supplementary Immunization Activities (SIAs) have been considered as a strategic key towards elimination of measles and rubella. This study aimed at identifying the coverage of vaccination in target population children. Methods: The study was carried out in South-East of Iran on a total of 6838 randomly selected children. Information was collected by trained interviewers using a validated questionnaire. The data was analyzed through descriptive statistics (i.e. frequencies and percentages) and 95% confidence interval. Results: Overall, 98.7% of children were vaccinated during SIAs campaign. Vaccination cards were available for about two-thirds of the participants at the time of home visits while 95.3% of them reportedly received an immunization card. Refusal to vaccinate (31%), not informed (24.2%), children being sick (22.4%), and travel (20.2%) were the main reasons for not vaccinating children (n = 86) during the campaign. The main sites for vaccination were school (46.5%) and health centers (46.4%). Fever (44.8%) and severe pain at the injection site (36.2%) were reported as the most frequent complications by the study participants. Prevention of measles and rubella (66.6%) and health staff recommendations (31.4%) were the main vaccination incentives. Conclusions: To sum up, Supplementary Immunization Activities (SIAs) are a good approach towards high coverage of immunization and attain measles and rubella elimination.