Abstract:
Background: Vaccines potency and injection safety issues are a concern to all levels of the service centers including the big urban center like Addis Ababa. Therefore, knowing contributing factors and the magnitude of the problem are imperative to improve immunization service from the grassroots to the national levels. Objective: The main objective of this study was to assess factors related to routine immunization vaccines’ potency maintenance and injection safety practice in health facilities of Addis Ababa. Methods: Data was collected using structured questioners and observation tools from83healthfacilities,107health workers and406caretakers and analyzed using descriptive statistics and multivariate logistics regression methods. Result:In the finding43% of caretakers know the kind of vaccine provided in the health facility they visited. Seventy(65.4%)of health workers knew freeze sensitive vaccines and storage standards. However, Vaccine Vials Monitor (VVM) was mentioned only by 18 (16.8%) of the respondents as a temperature monitoring devices for vaccines at health facility level. About 66(79.5%)of the health facilities achieved > 80% performance level for two third of selected vaccine potency maintenance indicators. All immunization sites use AD syringes and about 91.2% of the immunization sites use safety box for sharps waste disposal. Age of the health service providers is found to be the determinant to their injection safety practices, Adjust OR [0.188(0.052, 0.684)] Conclusion and recommendations: The greater majority of health of service providers lack required level of knowledge on vaccines and safe injection practices. Considerable proportion of the study health facilities were properly mange vaccines. Age of the health service provider found determinant factor in transforming their injection safety technique. Therefore, there need to enhance the capacity of the health professionals through in-service training and regular monitoring to vaccines and injection safety practices in all health facilities of Addis Ababa.