Open Access ISSN: 2161-0703 Journal of Medical Microbiology & Diagnosis Research Article Volume 10:2, 2021 Factors Influencing Fully Vaccination Coverage among Children Aged 12 to 23 Months in Debre Markos Town, Amhara Region, Ethiopia, 2018 Abstract Introduction: One of the most important and cost-effective public health interventions to reduce child mortality and morbidity is vaccination. Despite a continued global effort in providing vaccinations, there are still cases of inadequate vaccination coverage especially in low-income countries. With the high under-five mortality in Ethiopia (67 deaths per 1,000 live births), only 38.5% of the children (12 to 23 months) had received all the recommended vaccines. Hence, the purpose of this study was to assess factors influencing fully vaccination coverage among children aged 12 to 23 months in Debre Markos town. Methods: A community based cross-sectional study was employed among 389 children aged 12-23 months in Debre Markos town from January 1, 2018 to February 1, 2018. Systematic random sampling technique was used to select the study participants. Data was collected using face to face interviewer administered structured questionnaires. Then, the collected data was entered, coded and cleaned into EPI Data version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 20.0 for data analysis. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression was done to assess the association of factors with full vaccination coverage. Adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were calculated, and p-values<0.05 were considered to indicate statistical significance. Results: This study revealed that fully vaccination coverage among children aged 12 to 23 months was 76.9%. Fully vaccination coverage was significantly associated with women’s level of education (AOR=1.2, 95%CI (1.41-2.42), place of delivery of the index child (AOR=3.28, 95%CI (1.38-3.67), maternal knowledge on vaccine and vaccine preventable disease (AOR=4.12, 95%CI (3.0-10.6) and ANC service utilization (AOR=5.04, 95%CI (1.35-12.06). Conclusion: Fully vaccination coverage among children aged 12 to 23 months in the studied area was low. Therefore, health extension workers should work on improvements in women’s educational status, encourage mothers to have ANC follow-up and institutional delivery and they should discuss vaccination with mothers in order to improve their knowledge on vaccine preventable disease and the advantage of complete vaccination services. Keywords: Vaccination • Full vaccination • Children aged 12 to 23 months Wassachew Ashebir* and Yimenu Belachew Department of Medicine and Health Sciences, Debre Markos University, Debre Markos, Ethiopia *Address for Correspondence: Ashebir Wassachew, Department of Medicine and Health Sciences, Debre Markos University, Debre Markos, Ethiopia, Tel: 2515877116-46, E-mail: ashebirwase@gmail.com Copyright: © 2021 Ashebir W, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Received: January 25, 2021 ; Accepted: February 09, 2021 ; Published: February 16, 2021 Introduction One of the most important and cost-effective public health interventions to reduce child mortality and morbidity is vaccination [1]. Existing evidences showed that children who receive all appropriate vaccinations in each immunization schedules are less likely to die than those who do not [2]. Globally, it is estimated that as many as 2.5 million deaths among under 5 children are averted annually by vaccination against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, and measles. For the prevention and control of this Vaccine Preventable Diseases (VPD), improving access to and utilization of routine vaccination services as a best option is unquestionable. However, one-fifth of the world’s children about 22.4 million infants are not immunized against these fatal diseases. As a result, an estimated 1.5 million children died each year from vaccine- preventable diseases [3]. Most of these preventable deaths in children occur in low and middle-income countries [4]. Despite a continued global effort in providing vaccinations, there are still cases of inadequate vaccination coverage especially in reaching those at high risk: the poorest, most disadvantaged and remote communities. In addition, the coverage in low-income countries remains significantly below the levels in middle and high- income countries [5]. Globally, in 2016, an estimated 19.5 million infants were not reached with routine vaccination services such as DTP3 vaccine. Around 60% of these children live in 10 countries [6]. In Africa, only 71% of African infants receive the full series of three doses of the Diphtheria-Tetanus-Pertussis vaccine (DTP3). Among sub-Saharan countries surveyed, full childhood vaccination coverage varies widely from only 23% in Chad to 99% in Mauritius [7]. Although estimated global routine measles vaccination coverage reached 86% in 2016, nearly 23.2 million children were unvaccinated, of which 15.3 million (65%) resides in eight countries mainly in Africa [6]. In low-income countries, increasing access to complete vaccination service has been a primary concern of public health importance both at global and national contexts. However, meeting high and equitable coverage remains questionable in low-income countries. Despite the availability of vaccines and the efforts of governments and their partners’ in Sub-Saharan Africa, mortality rate of children under the age of five years remains the highest [8]. Ethiopia is not different for this scenario in that, a substantial number of deaths and morbidities among fewer than five years of age children in the country are due to vaccine-preventable diseases.