Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Postpandemic, several cases of measles outbreaks were reported across India which were found to be the highest globally in the years 2022-2023. Measles-rubella (MR) vaccination campaigns were conducted to address the situation. Despite efforts, there are various challenges to achieving adequate vaccination coverage. Therefore, the objectives of this study are to assess the coverage of vaccination during the MR campaign among children from nine months to 15 years of age, to describe the sociodemographic factors related to the vaccination, and to assess the drivers and barriers responsible for acceptance and nonacceptance of MR vaccine. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out in an urban slum area under the Urban Health Training Center (UHTC), IQ City Medical College & Hospital, Durgapur, West Bengal from August to October 2023 among children in the age group of nine months to 15 years. Data was collected from 228 participants using a predesigned, pretested structured schedule. A multistage cluster random sampling technique was used to select the study subjects. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 23 (Released 2015; IBM Corp., Armonk, New York, United States), and a p-value less than 0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS: A total of 85.5% (195) of the participants were found to be vaccinated. Only 52.3% (23) of the children who were not enrolled in school/Anganwadi center (AWC) were found to be vaccinated. A total of 100% of the children were vaccinated whose guardians had the knowledge that the vaccine was given for COVID-19. Ease to access vaccination sites was the major driving force for vaccination. CONCLUSION: Dropouts from the National Immunization Schedule (NIS) and school and lack of proper information about vaccination had proved to be major hindrances to vaccine uptake during the MR vaccination campaign.