Vaccine Utilization and Timing of Administration in Pregnant Women: A South African Perspective
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Maternal immunization is a valuable public health measure protecting the mother, fetus and newborn infant against targeted infectious diseases, playing an integral role in pregnancy outcomes. Limited literature exists from the African continent pertaining to the timing and utilization of maternal influenza and tetanus toxoid immunization. Maintaining high vaccine coverage is imperative for successful disease control, highlighting the importance of continued maternal immunization. We aimed to describe the utilization and timing of influenza and tetanus vaccinations during pregnancy, within South African publicly financed antenatal care facilities.
METHODS: A secondary analysis was conducted of clinical antenatal, vaccination and delivery data collected during a retrospective review of randomly selected maternity charts of women who delivered between July 2018 and June 2019 in Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa.
RESULTS: Influenza vaccination uptake within the sampled population was 16.6% (806/4851), with significantly higher odds of influenza vaccination in women 21-30 years of age and women with ≥6 antenatal care visits. Of 7031 (99.0% of the population) women who received at least 1 dose of tetanus toxoid-containing vaccine (TTCV), 39.2% (2759) received 1 dose; 51.0% (3590) received 2 and 9.7% (682) received 3 doses in their index pregnancy.
CONCULSIONS: Antenatal facilities are ideally suited to administer vaccines to pregnant women; however, targeted…
How strong is the evidence?
Evidence Hub reads this as a cohort study, done in people. Its evidence level is 3 of 5 (Moderate · trial / cohort / secondary analysis). Trials without a large randomized design, cohorts and secondary analyses give moderate evidence.
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