Trends of immunisation status of the children and women attending an urban diarrhoea hospital in Bangladesh.

Since October 1988 the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh has been offering immunisations to children less than 2 years old and women of reproductive age (15 to 45 years) who report for treatment at its Dhaka-based treatment centre. A survey conducted during October 1989 to June 1992 has revealed that 22.5% of these targeted children (n = 4,456) and 21.7% of the women (n = 5,266) had not received any immunisations. Only 23.2% of the children had completed an immunisation schedule, whereas 70.1% of the women had received 2 doses of tetanus toxoid. The percentage of women receiving both doses of tetanus toxoid vaccine increased significantly from 55.2% to 80.5% during the survey period (Chi Square = 9.47, p = 0.002). However, the percentage of children receiving all doses of vaccines against the six communicable diseases increased only from 15.8% to 23.4% (Chi Square = 1.13, p = 0.29) during the reporting period. Our observation shows that it is possible to cover a significant percentage of women with at least 2 doses of tetanus toxoid vaccine. However, immunisation services need to be intensified utilising all the health centres to improve immunisation coverage for the children.