KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICE OF HEALTH WORKERS ON THE MANAGEMENT OF VACCINE COLD CHAIN SYSTEM IN OYUN LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, KWARA STATE

ABSTRACT Vaccine preventable diseases remain the most common cinuses of childhood mortality with an estimated three million deaths each year. Immunity to vaccine preventable diseases only result when active and effective vaccines are used. Active and effective vaccines can be sustained by harnessing the essential elements in the cold chain namely the vaccines, manpower, and equipment. This study was conducted to determine the knowledge of health workers in immunization centers in Oyun Local Government Area as regards vaccine storage and handling, to determine number of trained personnel, number of equipment, their conditions and maintenance as well as fund availability. This study is a cross-sectional descriptive survey of all the public health facilities that offer static immunization in Oyun Local Government Area. All the twenty-two health facilities that visited in the Local Government Area were reviewed using both qualitative and quantitative approach to determine the cold chain status at those centers. The result showed that 67 (61.5%) of the respondents received pre-service training while 92 (84.4%) of the respondents have received in-service training on cold chain management. Only 60 (55.0%) of the respondents could identify OPV as the most heat sensitive, 41 (35.6%) could identify PENTA as the most sensitive to freezing and as many as 106 (97.3%) could cite the appropriate temperature range for vaccine storage. There is significant relationship between in-service training and knowledge of vaccine storage by health workers. The quality of vaccine cold chain in the twenty-seven health facility visited were generally good but efforts need to be directed at the availability of equipment and maintenance, regular supervision and monitoring of the vaccine cold chain and regular in-service training to update the knowledge of health workers