Cent Eur J Public Health 2020, 28(2):130-134 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a5543

Vaccination rates for Syrian population under temporary protection in Turkey

Dilek Öztaº1, Burak Kurt2, Muhsin Akbaba3, Mesut Akyol4, Salih Mollahaliloğlu1, Osman Topaç5
1 Department of Public Health, Medical School, Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University, Ankara, Turkey
2 Central Community Health Centre, Kastamonu, Turkey
3 Department of Public Health, Medical School, Cukurova University, Adana, Turkey
4 Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, Medical School, Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University, Ankara, Turkey
5 Directorate General of Public Health, Ministry of Health, Ankara, Turkey

Objectives: The aim of this study was to gather information on demographic and health indicators, primarily vaccination status, of Syrians under temporary protection in five provinces of Turkey and to develop infrastructure for vaccination planning.

Methods: The population under study consists of 89,986 Syrian children, 0-4 years of age, residing in Ankara, Mersin, Gaziantep, Izmir, and Bursa. Initially, we planned to evaluate 2,339 children, although a total of 2,827 children were evaluated by the end of the study.

Results: Of these children, 74% were born in Turkey, while 20% were born in Syria. In addition, 22.4% (n = 634) of the children were never vaccinated, and of these, 67.0% (n = 425) were born in Turkey. In other words, one in five Syrian children born in Turkey (20.3%) had never been vaccinated. Of the Syrian children under temporary protection, the missing vaccinations were as follows: hepatitis B (54.7%); Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (62.5%); five-component combined vaccine (64.6%); conjugated pneumococcal vaccine (58.0%); oral polio vaccine (70.8%); measles, mumps, and rubella (76.6%); varicella (66.8%); and hepatitis A vaccine (76.0%).

Conclusion: It is important to increase the immunization rates of Syrian children under temporary protection and establish regular vaccination procedures.

Keywords: Syrian, refugee, vaccination status, Turkey

Received: September 16, 2018; Revised: November 11, 2019; Accepted: November 11, 2019; Published: June 27, 2020  Show citation

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Öztaº D, Kurt B, Akbaba M, Akyol M, Mollahaliloğlu S, Topaç O. Vaccination rates for Syrian population under temporary protection in Turkey. Cent Eur J Public Health. 2020;28(2):130-134. doi: 10.21101/cejph.a5543. PubMed PMID: 32592558.
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