Vaccines for your baby: the EPI schedule in Ethiopia

Vaccines protect your baby from measles, pneumonia, tuberculosis, polio, and other illnesses that used to kill many Ethiopian children. All EPI vaccines are free at government health posts.

The most important thing you can do for your baby’s health after breastfeeding is to keep every vaccine appointment.

On this page

• Why vaccines matter
• The EPI schedule (0-15 months)
• What each vaccine protects against
• What to expect at a vaccine visit
• Common side effects
• Catching up if you missed doses

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Why vaccines matter

A vaccine teaches your baby’s immune system how to fight a disease before your baby ever meets that disease. Vaccinated children get either no illness or a much milder one.

Since Ethiopia started giving these vaccines through the EPI programme, deaths from measles, polio, and neonatal tetanus have dropped by more than 80%. Vaccines only work if enough children get them — every child protected also protects the babies who are too young to be vaccinated yet.

The EPI schedule

Take this card to every visit. Your health post will stamp each dose given.

Age	Vaccines
At birth (0-1 week)	BCG · OPV-0 · Hep B birth dose (in some areas)
6 weeks	Pentavalent-1 · OPV-1 · PCV-1 · Rotavirus-1
10 weeks	Pentavalent-2 · OPV-2 · PCV-2 · Rotavirus-2
14 weeks	Pentavalent-3 · OPV-3 · PCV-3 · IPV
9 months	Measles-1
15 months	Measles-2
9-14 years (girls)	HPV vaccine (2 doses, 6 months apart)

Total: 12 vaccines by 2 years old, protecting against 11 diseases.

What each vaccine protects against

• BCG — tuberculosis (severe forms in children)
• OPV / IPV — polio
• Hep B — hepatitis B (a liver infection that can be passed at birth)
• Pentavalent — 5-in-1: diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), Hep B, and Hib (a cause of meningitis and pneumonia)
• PCV — pneumococcal disease (a cause of pneumonia and meningitis)
• Rotavirus — the most common cause of severe childhood diarrhoea
• Measles — measles (still a major cause of childhood death in unvaccinated communities)
• HPV — cancer of the cervix, later in life

What to expect at a vaccine visit

• Bring your baby and their EPI card (yellow card given at birth)
• Have your child eat and be well-rested before the visit
• The health worker will check your baby’s weight and general health first
• Vaccines are usually given as an injection in the thigh or a few drops in the mouth
• Your baby may cry for a minute — this is normal. Breastfeed to comfort them.
• The health worker will stamp the card and tell you the date of the next visit — write it on your phone if you have one

Do not skip a visit even if your baby has a mild cold or is teething. Most illnesses are NOT a reason to delay vaccines. Ask the health worker if you are unsure.

Common side effects

Most babies have mild reactions in the first day or two:

• Mild fever
• Soreness or swelling where the injection was given
• Being a bit fussy or sleepy

Give the baby lots of fluids (breastmilk if under 6 months). Paracetamol (calpol) at the health-worker-advised dose helps with fever. A cool cloth on the injection site helps swelling.

::: urgentAdvice severity=“urgent”

Urgent advice: take your baby back to the health post today if:

• Fever above 39°C that does not come down with paracetamol
• Fever with a rash spreading over the body
• Non-stop crying for more than 3 hours
• Seizure (convulsion)
• Body becomes floppy or unresponsive
• Trouble breathing
• Face or lips swell (very rare — signs of severe allergic reaction) :::

Serious reactions to vaccines are extremely rare — much rarer than the diseases they prevent. Do not stop the schedule after a small reaction.

::: doList

Do

• Keep the EPI card safe — you will need it for school enrolment and travel
• Take a phone photo of the card in case it is lost
• Attend every scheduled visit on time
• Continue breastfeeding through and after each vaccine
• Ask any question you have — no question is too small :::

::: dontList

Don’t

• Do not skip vaccines because your baby has a mild illness
• Do not stop after a small side effect — the next dose is still needed
• Do not delay Measles-1 past 9 months — measles outbreaks kill children fastest at 9-15 months
• Do not accept vaccines from anyone who is not a trained health worker
• Do not believe anti-vaccine rumours on social media — check with the health post :::

::: factBox

If your family says “our child got sick after the vaccine”

Many children catch a viral illness during the age they are being vaccinated — one causes the other only rarely. Talk to a health worker if you are worried, but do not use family stories as a reason to skip the next dose. Vaccine-preventable illnesses (measles, whooping cough, meningitis) are far more dangerous than any side effect. :::

Catching up if you missed doses

If your baby is behind on the schedule, do not start over. Just continue from the next missed dose. The health post will work out the catch-up plan.

Most vaccines still work if given late — better late than never. Children up to 5 years old can catch up on the pentavalent and measles vaccines.

If your child is older and missed doses, ask a health worker about the “second-year of life” catch-up campaigns that run in most regions.

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Reviewed by Dr. Hanna Alemayehu, MD, MPH — Family medicine, Addis Ababa Last reviewed: 5 September 2026 · Next review due: 5 September 2028

Sources:

1. World Health Organization. Recommendations for routine immunization. 2024.
2. Federal Ministry of Health, Ethiopia. National Expanded Programme on Immunization schedule. 2023.
3. World Health Organization. Ethiopia country vaccination profile. 2024.

Content adapted from WHO immunization recommendations and Ethiopian MoH EPI schedule. Reviewed for Ethiopian context by Dr. Hanna Alemayehu.

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Draft notes (delete before publish)

• Word count: ~950
• Grade 7 reading level
• isTimeCritical: false (routine vaccine schedule); urgentAdvice used only for post-vaccine reactions
• Uses doList, dontList, factBox (addressing anti-vax family conversations respectfully)
• Ethiopian EPI schedule accurate as of 2023 revision; HPV added at 9-14yr girls
• Explicitly addresses common concerns: mild illness during visit, side effects, misinformation
• Dr. Hanna Alemayehu is placeholder — B2B-22