RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Maintaining maternal and neonatal tetanus (MNT) elimination status in Egypt requires continued strengthening of routine tetanus toxoid (TT) immunization services for pregnant women. OBJECTIVES: To measure the frequency rate of TT vaccination among women attending the well-baby clinic at the El-Darb El-Ahmar primary healthcare center in Cairo governorate and to identify different associated factors. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: This was a cross sectional study that targeted 277 mothers who attended the well-baby clinic at the El-Darb El-Ahmar primary healthcare center. Mothers were interviewed by a questionnaire inquiring about their sociodemographic characteristics, obstetric history, details of the last pregnancy, TT vaccination status and knowledge of the TT vaccine, and MNT disease. RESULTS: The results showed that 60.6% had taken all required doses of TT vaccine and 42.6% of the mothers studied were fully protected against MNT in their last birth. The rate of vaccination was found to be affected by mothers' socioeconomic level, education level, place of receiving antenatal care, health education about importance of TT vaccine, knowledge of mothers about NT disease and TT vaccine and the source of this knowledge.
