Mothers in Nigeria were between 2-4 times more likely to have fully immunized children if they attended 1-3 antenatal care (ANC) visits, between 2.5-8 times more likely if they attended 4-7 ANC visits, and between nearly 3-14 times more likely if they attended at least 8 ANC visits compared to those who had no ANC.
Similar findings have been seen in many LMICs, including Senegal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, India, Zimbabwe, and Southwest Ethiopia.
Ethiopian mothers use of any of three maternal health services — antenatal care, delivery services, or tetanus vaccination — significantly increased the likelihood of their children being fully immunized by 12-23 months of age. Therefore, national immunization initiatives should concentrate on improving access of pregnant women to these key maternal health services.
A recent review looks at evidence linking vaccinations in early infancy to childhood development services. BCG and DPT have the highest coverage of any vaccines worldwide and are typically administered within 6 weeks of birth. This timing offers the opportunity to deliver a range of early childhood development interventions such as newborn hearing screening, sickle cell screening, treatment and surveillance, maternal education around key newborn care issues such as jaundice, and tracking early signs of poor growth and nutrition.
This paper presents the first cost-benefit comparison of improved water supply investments and cholera vaccination programs. The modeling results showed that improved water supply interventions combined with targeted cholera vaccination programs are much more likely to yield attractive cost-benefit ratio outcomes than a community-based vaccination program alone.
