The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare through its Universal Immunization Program has taken numerous initiatives to maximize the vaccines coverages in India. Since 2005, the strengthening support provided by National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), shows an increasing trend in immunization coverage and quality but still, critical gaps remain in the vaccine logistics management system in the country.
According to the report released by the Confederation of Indian Industries, India still fares poorly as compared to other countries as far as expenditure and vaccines coverage is concerned. In terms of full immunization coverage, Brazil and Mexico’s portfolio is far superior as that of China and India. The astonishing fact – 70% of the world’s unvaccinated children live in only 10 countries, 52% of which live in just 3 countries: India, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
India covers 2.7 crore children under the immunization program, whereas 14.5 lakh still don’t receive vaccination. Vaccines are efficacious against prevalent areas, making it easier to overlook their success. For example, between the year 2000 and 2015, the measles vaccine alone saved 17 million lives, as reported by the World Health Organization (WHO). Despite the availability of safe and effective vaccines, the coverage of immunization against the six main vaccine-preventable diseases is still variable across different regions of the country. In 2015, one in every 5 children was unable to receive the needed routine vaccination. In an attempt to improve the immunization numbers, especially countries consisting of few vaccine manufacturers face extreme difficulty due to weak health-care systems, inadequate and poor infrastructure, interrupted links in the cold chain system and even issues related to technical capacities of staff.
While on a contrasting scenario, the facts state that India is amongst the largest vaccine manufacturers in the world. Despite that, the country is unable to provide maximum vaccine coverage. Why?
It is because districts in India face challenges related to vaccine coverage, equipment breakdowns, overstocking and stock- outs, storage issues during transportation and a discontinuous cold chain. The purpose of ensuring effective delivery becomes moot when the final destination in rural health clinics has issues with electricity. The complication is worsened when there are power outages for extended hours at a time, the vaccines requiring refrigeration are damaged.
India is solely responsible for wasting 25% of the vaccines due to the paucity of the cold chain. Therefore, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has planned over 27,000 cold chain points for storing the distribution of vaccines. In order to maximize the reach of vaccines, the Ministry in collaboration with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) rolled out Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (eVIN) across 12 states in India.
Due to these supply chain challenges, Hilleman Laboratories recognized the needs of the changing world and took the opportunity to introduce thermostable vaccines which drive down the logistics cost by eliminating the cold chain. Thermostable vaccines reduce the risk of ineffective vaccines and thereby, maximize the impact on public health. In order to expand the immunization coverage, Hilleman Laboratories is currently advancing technologies that aid in maintaining the quality attributes of the vaccines.
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