Adherence to compulsory vaccination during coronavirus disease-19 pandemic in egypt

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Nowadays, routine vaccination is taking the second rank after the emergence of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. The fear of catching COVID-19 rendered a lot of caregivers reluctant to give their child the obligatory vaccines. AIM: The goal of our research was to assess awareness, commitment and adherence to compulsory immunization schedule during COVID-19 lockdown in Egypt. MATERIALS (SUBJECTS) AND METHODS: An electronic questionnaire (Google form) was designed to evaluate the impact of the pandemic on adherence to compulsory vaccinations. Our target candidates were parents of infants in an age group from birth to 2 years old, that is, births from June 2018 to June 2020. RESULTS: In our study, 96.3% of children received Bacillus Calmette–Guérin vaccine on time. About 32.8% did not receive the obligatory booster dose vaccines at 18 months. Among the infants of >1 year, 95.3% received the obligatory vaccination in time at 2, 4, and 6 months of age compared to only 73.3% of those ≤1 year (P = 0.001). About 23% of those who missed the vaccine preferred to postpone until outbreak ended while, 27.2% missed vaccination due to fear of catching COVID-19. CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected the adherence to compulsory vaccines in Egypt. Therefore, it is mandatory to organize a plan to catch up the missed vaccines.