Abstract

Background: Tetanus is an infectious disease and hence its prevention is important in our society. The purpose of giving Tetanus Toxoid (TT) vaccine to women is to protect them and their newborn infants against neonatal tetanus. A total of 5 doses are scheduled in Bangladesh for lifelong immunity. Objective: To access the vaccination coverage among the women of reproductive age in Dhaka city. Methodology: This is a descripted type of cross-sectional study, conducted for Ten months from March 2022 to December 2022. 200 women of reproductive age group (15-49 years) were included. The technique used in the study was a convenient type of non-probability sampling. Result: Most of the respondents (45.5%) are within 21-25 years, 18.5% are within 26- 30 years. 71.5% of the respondents have taken the TT1 vaccine. 64.9% respondents have taken TT vaccine during pregnancy, where TT1 vaccine was taken by 61 respondents in pregnancy, among which 59 respondents (96.7%) continued to take TT2 vaccine, 35 respondents (57.4%) have continued to take TT3 vaccine, 26 respondents (42.6%) continued to take TT4 vaccine, and finally 24 respondents (39.3%) had taken the TT5 vaccine. Among non-pregnant respondents, 41% (82 respondents) have taken TT vaccine and 92.7% (76 respondents) continued to take TT2 vaccine, 76.8% (63 respondents) continued to take TT3 vaccine, 58.5% (48 respondents) continued to take TT4 vaccine, and 42.5% (37 respondents) continued to take TT5 vaccine. Conclusion: Tetanus is not uncommon in Bangladesh. Due to lack of proper health education, people are unaware that the TT vaccine is beneficial not only to the mother, but also to the child to prevent neonatal tetanus. So, proper health education should be incorporated to create awareness about the benefits of TT vaccine.

Keywords

tetanus, tetanus toxoid (TT), reproductive age, vaccination, immunization, neonatal tetanus