Micro-planning for immunization in Kaduna State, Nigeria: Lessons learnt, 2017

Abstract Background The OPV 3 coverage for Kaduna State, 12–23 months old children was 34.4%. The low OPV 3 coverage, due mainly to weak demand for routine antigens and the need to rapidly boost population immunity against the disabling Wild Polio Virus (WPV), led the Global Polio Eradication Initiatives (GPEI) to increase supplemental OPV campaigns in Kaduna State, despite the huge cost and great burden on personnel. The OPV campaigns, especially in high risk (low vaccine uptake, Methods We utilized a cross-sectional study that assessed the impacts and possible solutions to the challenges of overestimated denominators in immunization services planning, delivery and performance evaluation in Kaduna State, Nigeria. We used both descriptive and quantitative approaches. We enumerated households and obtained the target populations for routine immunization ( Results We found a significant difference in mean scores between the micro-planning and supplemental vaccination data on a number of Conclusion Periodic household-based micro-planning, aided with the use of technology for validation remains a useful tool in addressing gaps in immunization planning, delivery and performance evaluation in developing countries, such as Nigeria with overestimated denominators.