Financial cost of vaccine waste in the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Abstract

The National Immunization Program of Brazil is an international reference, due to the large offer of immunobiologicals for the population, intended for different age groups in a public and free. With the significant increase in public investments in this area, this study aims to estimate the rates of loss and use of doses of vaccines from multidose and single-dose vials in the Metropolitan Region of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, from 2015 to 2017. The methodology of this descriptive study was carried out using secondary data from Information System of the National Immunization Program and Strategic Inputs Information System  Nine vaccines were studied, with an average waste of 962,013 doses, which represents approximately R $ 3.5 million, that is, more than US$ 700.00. For multidose vaccines, the average waste (R $ 1,079,143) was four times greater than acceptable (R $ 269,785). For single-dose vaccines (R $ 1,298,159) it was twenty times higher (R $ 64,908). Thus, the costs of wasting vaccine doses 44.7% have been a burden on public resources that can invest in improvements in the health system.