Objective
To describe the impact of the new intervention model implemented by Paraguay across five districts of the Central Region in the last quarter of 2023, consisting of an integrated health services-based strategy to recover coverage with the tracer vaccine (pentavalent until April 2023, hexavalent thereafter) in children under 1 year of age; and the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine for the 1-year-old population.
Method
Descriptive, cross-sectional study with comparative analysis before (epidemiological weeks [EW] 1 and 34 of 2023) and after (EW35 and EW52 of 2023) the intervention. Three indicators were assessed: a) coverage with all three doses of pentavalent or hexavalent vaccine and first and second doses of MMR; b) productivity, represented by third doses of pentavalent or hexavalent vaccine administered; and c) dropout rates for the pentavalent or hexavalent and MMR vaccines.
Results
After the intervention, average weekly coverage with the third dose of pentavalent or hexavalent vaccine was 1.2%, an increase of 1.0% from the pre-intervention average. Compared to 2022, coverage with the third dose of pentavalent or hexavalent vaccine increased by 3.5% in 2023, while coverage with the first and second doses of MMR increased 32.7% and 4%, respectively. The average number of weekly third doses of pentavalent or hexavalent vaccine administered increased to 257, up from 215 prior to the intervention. The dropout rate declined from 17.9% to 9.2% for pentavalent and hexavalent vaccine and from 55.0% to 46.5% for the MMR vaccine.
Conclusion
Implementation of the new intervention model had a positive impact on the indicators of interest, halting the downward trend in vaccination coverage recorded in recent years.