Maseru, June18 — Private and public health centres within the Maseru district have indicated high drop out rate in Measles Rubella and Pentavalent vaccines as a major concern.
This surfaced during presentations made by health facilities at the workshop on Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) review spearheaded by District Health Management Team (DHMT) as mother body to district health facilities.
Pentavalent vaccine provides protection to a child from five life-threatening diseases including Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Hepatitis B and Hib. While Measles Rubella (MR) vaccine is given for preventing both measles and rubella disease in the child.
The facilities through their representatives have stated that most of their clientele/ patients seem to be mobile, thus they first go to a certain health facility to access services but before they could complete doses they move to another facility or district. They said that this makes it difficult to track them down and such patients end up not accessing services.
