Spatial Mapping of Measles-Rubella Campaign in a Rural Area near Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Abstract

Immunization is an important public health intervention. The Measles-Rubella (MR) campaign was launched during 2017 in India for the elimination of measles. This study explored vaccination coverage and spatial mapping using QGIS and Google Earth Pro. WHO-EPI 30 clusters sampling technique for evaluation of vaccination coverage was performed in villages within the rural area of a Medical College near Bengaluru. Seven children aged 2-15 years were surveyed per cluster, resulting in 210 children. Smartphones having GPS/Garmin GPS72H (handheld GPS receiver) were used for noting coordinates. Subsequently all these coordinates were plotted for spatial mapping of vaccination coverage. The geospatial characteristics of the households surveyed were described using spatial mapping. Results indicate that 87.6% were immunized with MR Vaccine under the campaign, but 12.4% remained unimmunized, the reasons given being absence, ignorance, or refusal because of rumours concerning side-effects. The Measles-Rubella campaign coverage was found to be satisfactory. In addition the spatial mapping is a useful tool for measurement of coverage of a vaccination campaign. There was no clustering of unimmunized subjects observed on spatial mapping.