Is maternal HIV infection a risk factor for delayed or missed infant measles vaccination in western Kenya?

ABSTRACT

Measles is a highly infectious virus and one of the leading causes of childhood morbidity and mortality in areas with low immunization rates. Despite the introduction of the measles vaccine preventing about 20 million deaths between 2000 and 2016, there still is a low uptake of the vaccine, especially in low-income countries. Maternal HIV positive status is identified as one of the factors inhibiting the uptake of the measles vaccine in some settings. Using data from a Health and Demographic surveillance system (HDSS), and a Longitudinal Bio-behavioural Survey (LBBS), we assessed the effect of a mother’s HIV status on a child’s overall uptake of measles vaccine and timeliness in western Kenya. The findings did not show association between a mother’s HIV status and a child’s receipt of measles vaccine (OR = 0.84, 95% CI: 0.65, 1.08). However, higher socio-economic status (SES) was a positive factor for receipt of timely measles vaccine (OR = 1.34, 95% CI: 1.03, 1.75) for middle, (OR = 1.43, 95% CI: 1.10, 1.86) upper middle, and (OR = 1.51, 95% CI: 1.15, 1.98) higher quintiles as compared to the lower. Consequently, it is imperative to incorporate interventions that target low SES children and those that improve economic status.

KEYWORDS:

• Measles
• HIV
• coverage
• timeliness
• Kenya

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the Gem community, KEMRI/CDC LBBS and HDSS project staff, and the Ministry of Health staff for conducting quality control checks on the sero-surveys. This article is published with the approval of the Director of the Kenya Medical Research Institute. The findings and conclusions are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Centers for Disease Control Disease Control and Prevention.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.