A study to assess vaccine wastage in an immunization clinic of tertiary care centre, Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India

Abstract

Background: Vaccines are one of the most successful and cost-effective health intervention. It becomes imperative that use of vaccine was done through a proper framework of practical decision-making that confers positive health and economic benefits to the society of which Vaccine Wastage was a key factor. The aim of the study is to assess “Vaccine Wastage Rate” and “Wastage Factor” of different vaccines given to beneficiaries in Immunization Clinic and based on the above data, recommend measures to reduce it in the Immunization clinic Methods: The present study was a Record Based Retrospective study carried out in Immunization Clinic in Madhav Dispensary of tertiary center at Gajra Raja Medical College, Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India. The data was collected from 1 April 2015 - 31 March 2016.Results: Immunization Sessions were conducted in Immunization clinic during reference period and 7 vaccines BCG, OPV, DPT, Hepatitis B, pentavalent, measles and TT were given. Among individual vaccines, wastage rate and wastage factor in BCG (20.71 and 1.26), OPV (14.65 and 1.17), DPT (15.6 and 1.18), Hepatitis B (10.56 and 1.12), Pentavalent (5.2 and 1.05), Measles (21.68 and 1.28), TT (7.09 and 1.08), and IPV (10.49 and 1.12) was respectively.Conclusions: Vaccine wastage could be expected in all programmes and there should be an acceptable limit of wastage. Innovative techniques to be developed not only to reduce wastage but also the operational cost for convenience of children who were to be vaccinated and parents who bring their children for vaccination without compromising coverage.

Small Session Size and Big Vial Size: Operational Research Assessing Open Vial Vaccine Wastage at the Service Delivery Points in the Mandalay Region of Myanmar During 2018

“…The current study reported high wastage for oral, lyophilized, and multi-dose vaccines. Similar results have also been observed in studies from various parts of the world [10,[15][16][17][18]. The current findings support that multi-dose vials with a multi-dose vial policy has less wastage compared to those without a multi-dose vial policy.…”

“…Immunization averts vaccine-preventable diseases (VPD), and benefits indirectly through improving cognitive development, educational attainment, labour productivity, income generation, savings and investment. A study estimated that in low-income countries, for every dollar spent on immunization, 16 dollars are expected to be saved in healthcare costs, lost wages, and lost productivity due to illness and death [2].…”

Utilização e perda de doses de vacinas na Região Metropolitana de Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul: um estudo descritivo de 2015-2017*

“…1 The progress achieved by the program has brought undeniable benefits, despite still having to live with problems such as vaccine wastage, whether this be technical and/or physical wastage. 2 Some degree of wastage is inevitable, 3 and some of it is acceptable and justified. 2 The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that globally vaccine wastage is around 50%, 4 while recommending minimum rates of 25% and 5% for multi-dose and single-dose vaccines, respectively.…”

Assessment of vaccine wastage in an immunization clinic of a tertiary care hospital, Kolkata, West Bengal

“…12 The present study shows that vaccine wastage rate was more for lyophilized vaccine (61.8% with a wastage factor of 2.61) as compared to liquid vaccine (41.3% with wastage factor 1.70 10-12.17 In the present study, wastage rate and wastage factor was more for injectable vaccines (wastage rate 54.7%, wastage factor 2. 20 Pentavalent, fractional IPV and JE being newly introduced vaccine, limited data are available regarding their wastage rate and wastage factor. In this study the wastage rate of Pentavalent vaccine and fractional IPV were 33.6% and 38.1% respectively which were higher than the proposed limit of 25% as recommended by Government of India as well as WHO for liquid vaccines.…”

“…In similar studies by Gupta et al and Sharma et al the wastage rate of OPV was found to be 28.97% and 29.45% respectively 17,19. However studies by UNICEF, Palanivel et al and Mehta et al found much higher wastage rates for OPV which were 47%, 48.1% and 51.2% respectively whereas studies by Tiwari et al and Praveena et al showed much lower wastage rates of 14.65% and 2.4% respectively [10][11][12]14,20. The wastage rate for MR vaccine 56.3% in the present study.Since MR vaccine has been recently introduced in the National Immunization Schedule, limited studies are found regarding its wastage rate.…”