Abstract:
BACKGROUND Malaria vaccine provides affordable intervention for malaria in children under 5 years of age. This vaccination is the first to show partial effectiveness in shielding children against malaria. Nonetheless, there remains a scarcity of data regarding the adoption of the vaccine and the likelihood of malaria infection due to non-adherence, which hampers the ability of stakeholders to determine appropriate actions for improving interventions. The study aimed to determine the uptake of the malaria vaccine and the risk of malaria infection due to non-compliance among children aged 6-36 months in Western Kenya. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study employed a quantitative cross-sectional design. Data was collected from 319 Caretakers of children 6-36 months in Muhoroni sub-county using ODK. A stratified random sampling method was employed for sample selection. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were used, and data was analyzed using STATA. RESULTS The results showed poor uptake of the RTS, S malaria vaccine as follows 1st dose 72.10%, 2nd 66.68%, 3rd 59.40%, and 4th 31.35% respectively. 67.57% of study participants had a positive malaria result in the past 6 months. Children who had not received the recommended dose were 6 times more likely to be infected by malaria as compared to a fully vaccinated child (COR 5.87, 95% CI 2.25-15.31, P value=<0.001). Unvaccinated children were 3 times more likely to be infected by malaria infection in comparison to children partially vaccinated with a single dose (COR 2.72, 95% CI 1.26-5.88, P value =0.011). older infants 24-36 months were 7 times more likely to get malaria infection as compared to those aged 0-6 months (COR=7, 95%CI=0.09-2.73, P=0.03). CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS The findings showed low utilization of the malaria vaccine, and non-compliance to the vaccine uptake increases the risk of infection. Age is a risk factor for malaria infection and vaccine uptake. Future efforts should focus on identifying and addressing barriers to malaria vaccine uptake and targeted interventions can be explored to improve the uptake of the 3rd and 4th doses of the malaria vaccine. There is a need for targeted interventions to improve malaria vaccine uptake.
