A Study of a Six-Year Trend of Pentavalent 1 and 3 Coverage in Imo State from 2018 to 2023

Vaccination is widely regarded as the most successful and cost-effective intervention in public health to combat infectious diseases. A pentavalent vaccine, also known as a 5-in-1 vaccine, is a combination vaccine with five individual antigens conjugated into one. Pentavalent vaccine protects against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B, and Haemophilus influenzae type B, and it is generally used in middle- and low-income countries, where polio vaccine is given separately. This study investigated a six-year trend of Pentavalent1 and 3 vaccination coverage in Imo State from 2018 to 2023. Data was extracted from the DHIS2 platform and analyzed using Excel, QGIS, and Health Mapper. The result shows that in 2018, Penta 1 and Penta 3 coverage was 87% and 81% respectively; in 2019 there was 84% coverage for Penta 1 and 79% for Penta 3. In the year 2020, the coverage for Penta 1 and Penta 3 was 75% and 69%; for 2021 the coverages dropped further at 72% for Penta 1 and 66% for Penta 3. In 2022, coverages were 71% and 65% respectively for Penta1 and Penta 3 and a further drop to 63% and 59% respectively in 2023. The State dropout rate never exceeded the national dropout rate of 10% throughout the study period. The decline in vaccination coverage in 2020-2021 may be attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic; further drop in coverages to 2023 may be attributable to rising state of insecurity in the state. Future studies would require a more in-depth analysis of confounding socio-economic factors and other barriers to immunization access.