a survey on measles and rubella supplementary immunization activities (sias) in iran

Background: supplementary immunization activities (sias) have been considered as a strategic key towards elimination of measles and rubella. this study aimed at identifying the coverage of vaccination in target population children. methods: the study was carried out in south-east of iran on a total of 6838 randomly selected children. information was collected by trained interviewers using a validated questionnaire. the data was analyzed through descriptive statistics (i.e. frequencies and percentages) and 95% confidence interval. results: overall, 98.7% of children were vaccinated during sias campaign. vaccination cards were available for about two-thirds of the participants at the time of home visits while 95.3% of them reportedly received an immunization card. refusal to vaccinate (31%), not informed (24.2%), children being sick (22.4%), and travel (20.2%) were the main reasons for not vaccinating children (n = 86) during the campaign. the main sites for vaccination were school (46.5%) and health centers (46.4%). fever (44.8%) and severe pain at the injection site (36.2%) were reported as the most frequent complications by the study participants. prevention of measles and rubella (66.6%) and health staff recommendations (31.4%) were the main vaccination incentives. conclusions: to sum up, supplementary immunization activities (sias) are a good approach towards high coverage of immunization and attain measles and rubella elimination.