Coverage of Japanese encephalitis routine vaccination among children in central India

• Published in: Journal of medical virology 2023-01, Vol.95 (1), p.e28155-n/a
• Main Authors: Tandale, Babasaheb V., Deshmukh, Pravin S., Narang, Rahul, Qazi, Mohiuddin S., Padmaja, Goteti V., Deshmukh, Pradeep R., Raut, Abhishek V., Narlawar, Uday W., Jha, Punam Kumari, Rajderkar, Shekhar S., Tomar, Shilpa J., Bondre, Vijay P., Sapkal, Gajanan N., Damle, Rekha G., Khude, Poornima, Talapalliwar, Manoj, Rathod, Pragati, K. J., Kishore Kumar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age; central India; Children; Encephalitis; endemic region; Gender aspects; Immunization; Japanese encephalitis; routine immunization; Sex differences; vaccination coverage; Vaccines; Vector-borne diseases; Virology
• ISSN: 0146-6615; 1096-9071; 1096-9071
• DOI: 10.1002/jmv.28155

We aimed to estimate the coverage of Japanese encephalitis (JE) vaccination in central India to help explain the continued occurrence of JE disease despite routine vaccination. We implemented a 30‐cluster survey for estimating the coverage of JE vaccination in the medium‐endemic areas implemented with JE vaccination in central India. The parents were enquired about the uptake of the JE vaccine by their children aged 2−6 years, followed by verification of the immunization cards at home along with reasons for non‐vaccination. Vaccination coverage was reported as a percentage with 95% confidence intervals (CI). We estimated high coverage of live‐attenuated SA 14‐14‐2 JE vaccination in Maharashtra (94.8%, 95% CI: 92.7−96.3) and Telangana (92.8%, 95% CI: 90.0−94.9). The vaccination card retention was 90.3% in Maharashtra and 70.4% in Telangana state. There were no gender differences in coverage in both states. A similar level of JE vaccination coverage was observed during the year 2013−2021 in both states. In Maharashtra, the maximum age‐wise coverage was 96.6% in the >60 months age category, whereas in Telangana it was in the