author(s)
Dr. R Usharani, S Nandhini, S Gayathri and T Lavanya

abstract
Immunization is defined as the process of inducing the immunity in an individual against an infectious organism or agent, through the vaccination. In May 1974, the WHO officially launched a global immunization programme known as Expanded Programme of Immunization (EPI), to protect all the children of the world against six vaccine preventable diseases namely- Diphtheria, Whooping Cough, Tetanus, Polio, Tuberculosis and Measles by the year 2000. In India, the EPI was launched on January 1978. In 1990, by United Nations Integrated Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), EPI was renamed into Universal Child Immunization and it was launched in India on November 19, 1985 and was dedicated to the memory of Smt. Indira Gandhi. (K. Park) An important contribution of microbiology to medicine has been immunization. By this, many vaccines preventable have been virtually eliminated. A quantitative one group pre-test and post-test research design was conducted among 60 antenatal mothers. Purposive sampling technique was used to select samples. Semi- Structured questionnaire was used to collect demographic data and knowledge regarding immunization. The investigator explained the purpose of the study. Pre-test was performed for all study participants by semi structured questionnaire. Structured teaching program was given to the patients in experimental group. The post test was assessed using the same questionnaire. The data were collected and analyzed. The result clearly infers there is significant improvement in the post test level of knowledge at p< 0.001 level. This reveals there is a need for the structured teaching program among antenatal mothers regarding immunization.