Spatio-temporal Analysis of the Occurrence of Vaccine Preventable Childhood Killer Diseases in Osun State, Nigeria

Efforts at controlling vaccine preventable childhood killer diseases (VPCKDs) in Nigeria; have not yielded desired results. This is partly attributable to macro level policy formulation without recourse to spatial peculiarities; hence this study which examined their spatio-temporal patterns of VPCKDs in Osun State, Nigeria. Primary and secondary data were used. The primary data were obtained from questionnaire on households and in-depth interview with head of the State’s immunisation programme and selected immunization centres. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 200 respondents to the questionnaire. The main secondary data used were records of the monthly reported cases of the diseases (diphtheria, measles, pertussis, poliomyelitis, tetanus and tuberculosis) from the 30 LGAs in the State between 2001and 2010. Results show a significant temporal variation in occurrence (measles, F=25868.49, p<0.05; pertussis, F=681.30, p<0.05; tetanus, F=186.66, p<0.05; tuberculosis, F=63.86, p<0.05; and polio, F=24.13, p<0.05. Also, there exists spatial variation in occurrence of the diseases; measles (F=154866.36, p<0.05; pertussis, F=3750.65, p<0.05; tetanus, F=1001.83, p<0.05; tuberculosis, F=261.70, p<0.05; polio, F=88.39, p<0.05 and diphtheria, F=19.68, p<0.05). Hence, the need to factor spatial peculiarities into control