Study on Hepatitis B Birth Dose Vaccination Coverage, Promoting the Same in a Private Rural Medical College, Karnataka, South In-dia

Introduction: Administration of Hepatitis B vaccine at birth within 24 hrs prevents ~95% of perinatally acquired Hepatitis B Virus infections, averting 15% of total burden. Objectives of this study were to find out the baseline coverage of newborn vaccination especially HepB birth dose and to raise the HepB birth dose coverage in a Private Rural Medical College. Methodology: Newborn vaccination data of all live births between 01st April 2013 and 31st March 2014 was collected in the ‘Extended Immunogram tool’. Simple, doable promotive measures were operated between the last week of April and 31stAugust 2014. Results: HepB birth dose vaccination coverage was 56.1%. More infants were born (71.28%) in Private facilities with low coverage (43.35%) than in Govt facilities (28.71%) but with high coverage (87.76%) - p