Giving DT vaccine during promotion campaign: Practitioners’ and patients’ knowledge on indication, contraindication, and side effect

How to cite this article:
Joob B, Wiwanitkit V. Giving DT vaccine during promotion campaign: Practitioners’ and patients’ knowledge on indication, contraindication, and side effect. Ann Trop Med Public Health 2015;8:221-2

 

How to cite this URL:
Joob B, Wiwanitkit V. Giving DT vaccine during promotion campaign: Practitioners’ and patients’ knowledge on indication, contraindication, and side effect. Ann Trop Med Public Health [serial online] 2015 [cited 2021 Apr 14];8:221-2. Available from: https://www.atmph.org/text.asp?2015/8/5/221/159838

Dear Sir,

The remerging diphtheria in Thailand due to imported disease by foreign workers from nearby countries has become an important concern for the local public health system. [1] To correspond to the problem, diphtheria and tetanus toxoids (DT) vaccine promotion campaign for the local Thai population has been proposed in 2015. The promotion of this vaccination has been done since early 2015 and mass vaccination has been done. Here, the authors report on the simple survey on the practitioners’ and the patients’ knowledge toward DT vaccine in a medical center that gives service to university staff. All the 12 medical practitioners who had the responsibility of giving DT and the 105 university staff who received DT were surveyed regarding their knowledge. Based on this study, all (100%) the medical practitioners knew the indication of the vaccination while only 52 (49.5%) university staff, the patients knew the indication. Focusing on the contraindication, six (50%) medical personnel and 10 (9.5%) patients knew about it. Focusing on the side effect, six (50%) medical personnel and three (2.9%) patients knew about it. Here, it can be seen that there might be some problems since the poor knowledge of contraindication and side effect of the DT vaccine was observed. Information for both the medical practitioner in the field and the patients is very important, and has to be managed. Indeed, a previous report on medical personnel toward immunization practice by Power et al. showed that “a majority believed their immunization training was less than adequate and believed their practice would benefit from continuing medical education courses.” [2] Also, it is noted that having information for the patient to read can improve his/her knowledge about the DT vaccine. [3]

References

 

1.
Wanlapakorn N, Yoocharoen P, Tharmaphornpilas P, Theamboonlers A, Poovorawan Y. Diphtheria outbreak in Thailand, 2012; seroprevalence of diphtheria antibodies among Thai adults and its implications for immunization programs. Southeast Asian J Trop Med Public Health 2014;45:1132-41.
2.
Power ML, Leddy MA, Anderson BL, Gall SA, Gonik B, Schulkin J. Obstetrician-gynecologists’ practices and perceived knowledge regarding immunization. Am J Prev Med 2009;37:231-4.
3.
Gold R, Bjornson GL. What do parents learn by reading a DPT vaccine information form? Can J Infect Dis 1994;5:67-74.

Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None

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DOI: 10.4103/1755-6783.159838

Paul Mies has now been involved with test reports and comparing products for a decade. He is a highly sought-after specialist in these areas as well as in general health and nutrition advice. With this expertise and the team behind atmph.org, they test, compare and report on all sought-after products on the Internet around the topics of health, slimming, beauty and more. The results are ultimately summarized and disclosed to readers.

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