WHILE the focus right now is the vaccination against COVID-19, let’s not forget other vaccination programs such as for measles, polio, diphtheria, etc. The decline in the country’s immunization coverage for these and other diseases is largely due to recurring issues in the supply side of the government’s immunization program.
While demand factors like vaccine confidence have contributed to the decrease in the immunization coverage, the supply factor also matters.
The vaccine stockouts in the country can be partly attributed to the failure in local bidding. For example, in 2013 to 2015 there was a persistent stockout in pentavalent (a 5-in-1 vaccine protecting against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae type B) because of failed local bidding. We have difficulty maintaining stocks.
The Department of Health (DOH) has been procuring vaccines from local manufacturers as part of the government’s long-term effort to achieve vaccine independence. This, however, has contributed to national stockouts due to procurement issues It takes one year to complete the procurement process for vaccines and other supplies. More than half of all awarded bids for the Expanded Program on Immunization vaccines take more than 106 days and the bottlenecks are on the notice of award, post qualifications, and contract signing.
Another concern is DOH’s lack of storage for vaccine stocks. In terms of national storage and distribution, the DOH has limited capacity to accommodate vaccine supplies. The Research Institute for Tropical Medicine can only accommodate around a three-month supply of all these basic vaccines. Ideally, you would have a buffer stock for three to six months but this is not possible with the limited space.
Then there’s the lack of an organized system in the distribution of vaccines in local government units, lack of investment in service delivery channels, lack of an electronic monitoring system for the proper inventory of vaccines and supplies in local health facilities, and the limited collaboration between the government and private sector in terms of the Expanded Program on Immunization.
The National Immunization Program should take steps to address these concerns. It may start by assessing the management of vaccines around the last quarter of 2021 to check whether the issues and challenges before were already addressed and to find ways to resolve the new and recurring problems on the supply-side of vaccination”.
It has also be suggested that DOH develop a multiyear contracting agreement for the immunization program in coordination with development partners and the Department of Budget and Management. Further, it must continuously engage with medical societies, nongovernment organizations, the private sector, other national government agencies, local government units, and other stakeholders using a whole-of-society approach to ensure that eligible populations are vaccinated.
