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

ABSTRACT

Background: Universal Immunization Programme was launched by Government of India in 1985 with the aim of immunizing all children and pregnant women across the country free of cost. However high vaccine wastage and lack of proper vaccine management could not meet the demand and increased the cost.Methods: A descriptive record based study was conducted in the immunization clinic of KPC Medical College and Hospital. Vaccination records of all children and pregnant women attending clinic from 1st July 2018 to 30th June 2019 was retrieved from the immunization registers.Results: Wastage rate was found to be highest for bacillus Calmette–Guérin vaccine vaccine (68.9%) and lowest for oral polio vaccine (27.7%). Wastage rate was higher for 10 dose vial vaccine compared to 5 dose vial and 20 dose vial vaccine and the differences were statistically significant (p<0.00001).The wastage rate was higher for lyophilized vaccine compared to liquid vaccine and for injectable vaccine compared to oral vaccine. These differences were also statistically significant (p<0.00001).Conclusions: Thus regular monitoring of immunization sessions should be done to estimate the vaccine wastage in each session. Reducing wastage is expected to increase the quality and efficiency of the programme and also reduce the cost without compromising the coverage.