Prevalence and Pattern of Adverse Events Following Immunisation Among Under-Fives in Rural and Urban communities of Ekiti- State, Nigeria

Adverse events following immunisation (AEFI) is a medical incident that takes place after immunisation. AEFI is a critical component of the immunisation program .1Whether the adverse event was truly caused by the vaccine or was merely temporally related is often difficult to determine. The study aimed at determines prevalence and pattern of presentation of AEFI. Methods: The study was comparative study design. A multi-stage sampling technique was used. Data were collected using pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire. Data were collated and analyzed using SPSS version 20. Results were presented in table and figure. A p-value was set as < 0.05. Results: The mean age of the respondents was 28.6 ± 5.8 years in the rural area, and 30.5 ± 6.1 in the urban area, (p=0.001). 96.7% of the respondents were female, 91.9% were married, and 79.1% are Yoruba tribe and 81.7% are Christians. The prevalence of AEFI was higher among the rural respondents (49.3%) than urban respondents (38.3%) with statistically significant p value of 0.018. Most AEFI occurred within 24 hours in rural groups, higher proportion occurred in between 2-7 days in urban group. Most cases of AEFI recovered fully in both groups. Conclusions: There is a need to educate the communities in the state on AEFI during immunisation services. There is also a need to train and retrain the health workers on AEFI and proper vaccine administration