Community Pharmacy – Based Immunization in Bayelsa State, Nigeria: Prevalence, Patterns and Logistics

Immunization is a global health and development success story, saving millions of lives every year. There are now vaccines to prevent more than 20 life threatening diseases helping people of all ages live longer , healthier lives. . There is currently vaccine underutilization globally especially in Africa prompting a need to increase the number of immunization providers and the number of sites where patients can receive immunizations. This study sought to assess the correlates of Community Pharmacy-Based Immunization (CPBI) practices in terms of prevalence of practice and patterns, and availability of logistics for smooth delivery in Bayelsa State, Nigeria. A total of 67 randomly – selected Community Pharmacists (CPs) were surveyed, whereby data was obtained with an appropriately designed, pre-tested and validated self-administered questionnaire. The collected data was analyzed with the IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25 Some of key findings of this study include the revelation that just slightly above half (52%) of the respondents, a modest proportion of the studied CPs, were involved in some forms of vaccination practices and were mainly involved with adult, paediatric and routine immunization . In addition, majority (59.70%) “Always†or “Sometimes†administered the vaccines themselves while 25.37% of the respondents “Always networked†with the Government (Ministry of Heath/Health Management Board) to provide immunization services; 40.3% “Sometimes networked†with other community pharmacists to provide immunization services; whereas 31.34% “Sometimes networked†with Non – Governmental Agencies such as world health organization (WHO), united nations international education fund (UNICEF) etc to provide immunization services. Furthermore, 80.60% of the respondents were never involved in the training and supervision of community health workers on the proper handling, usage and administration of vaccines and 82.09% were never involved in public health education and enlightenment programmes on vaccination.. About 43.28% of respondents sometimes handled Rotavirus vaccine.