Vaccine Wastage Assessment, India
By Ranjit Dhiman / Satish Kumar Gupta- UNICEF India
In collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Government of India, UNICEF with WHO and partners carried out a vaccine wastage assessment in India. The aim of the study was to understand current vaccine wastage at various levels, and with varying packaging. Also to understand wastage based on various immunization coverage levels and to suggest areas where wastage can be minimized.
The lack of knowledge of the wastage rates leads to inadequate estimations of needs and subsequent stock-outs and/or overstocking. High vaccine wastage inflates vaccine demand and unnecessarily increases vaccine procurement and supply chain costs. In the Indian context, any reduction of vaccine wastage will have a positive impact on the ongoing efforts towards vaccine security.
The field assessment was carried out in 4 national stores and 5 states selected on the basis of geographical and coverage levels in December 2009. Six month retrospective data was collected from each of the different sites ranging from the outreach session site to the primary health centre, district and state stores. Key personnel were also interviewed. The report is expected to be available in February 2010.
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