Pneumococcal Vaccination Status of Children with Sickle Cell Disease in Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Background: The sickle gene confers an increased vulnerability to infection, particularly to certain bacterial pathogens, and this has significantly contributed to morbidity and mortality in individuals with sickle cell disease. Immunization plays an important role in the prevention of infection in children with sickle cell disease; we sought to assess the pneumococcal vaccination rate of children with this disease in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional questionnaire based study of children with sickle cell disease presenting in the Sickle Cell Clinic of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Nigeria from January 2013 to December 2013. Results: There were 181 children with sickle cell disease. One hundred and seventy nine (98.9%) of them were SS genotype while 2(1.1%) children had SC genotype. Immunization coverage according to the National Programme on Immunization was 172 (95.1 %). The rates for other specific vaccines, range from 102(66.2%) for the antiHaemophilus influenza vaccine in the form of pentavalent vaccine to 10(5.5%) for the pneumococci. The major reasons for non-vaccination of pneumococcal were unavailable in Government Health Facility, ignorance, lack of proper education on the need of the vaccine and the outrageous cost of these vaccines for the families who knew about them. Conclusion: The immunization coverage for pneumococcal infections among children with sickle cell disease is poor. These results propose the need for a national program against sickle cell disease, which should license health facilities to include pneumococcal vaccine in their routine vaccination program.