DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2019.v07i07.057

Pages: 2556-2560

Childhood diarrhoea is one of the leading causes of hospitalization and death among under-five children. Rotavirus is one of the most important causes of severe diarrhoea because it has a propensity to cause rapid dehydration. Also, the profound vomiting that occurs in rotavirus-caused diarrhoea limits the scope of oral rehydration therapy. Vaccines are now being introduced in immunization schedules in a phased manner over the country. A descriptive, cross-sectional study was done to assess the level of knowledge of mothers about rotavirus and various attitudes and practices regarding its vaccination in a tertiary-care hospital of Northeast India. Convenience sampling technique was employed to interview 700 mothers of under-five children using a pre-designed, structured interview format. Descriptive statistics and suitable tests like Chi-square test were used to ascertain association between variables. A P-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Only about 2% of the total respondent mothers knew about the rotavirus and the vaccine. And among them, about half had satisfactory knowledge. The association of knowledge with educational level, occupation and age of the respondent’s child was found to be statistically significant. Though the government’s initiatives in introducing the vaccine in the national immunization schedule are definitely laudable, dissemination of information about its importance needs to be scaled using health education activities to improve the general awareness of the disease and acceptability of the vaccine.