Vaccination status of children aged 12-23 months in the Northern Transvaal Health Region.

A vaccination coverage survey was done between October and December 1989 in the Northern Transvaal Health Region, as the first phase in the region's contribution to the National Measles Strategy. The aim of the study was to evaluate the vaccination status of children in this region aged 12-23 months. The study population was divided into four strata, a black and a white urban stratum and two rural black strata, one in the north-western and the other in the south-eastern part of the region (self-governing and independent territories excluded). The Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI)-recommended cluster sampling technique was used in each stratum. The data were collected by nursing staff working in the area, after they had received special training. A questionnaire was used to obtain data from randomly selected households. The following conclusions can be made from the results: (i) in all strata percentages of fully vaccinated children were well below the EPI-recommended target of 60-70% to be reached by the developing countries by 1990; (ii) a danger of measles outbreaks exists in most communities, because the levels of measles vaccination were less than 70% in three out of the four strata; (iii) the children with the highest risk of developing measles complications were not being vaccinated early enough; and (iv) the very high drop-out rates for subsequent vaccinations in the rural areas warrant urgent attention.