€6m worth of vaccines destroyed in six years

The HSE has destroyed €6.614 million worth of vaccines in the past six years, figures obtained by this newspaper reveal.

Between 2008 and the end of 2013, the HSE sent 1.03 million doses of expired and returned vaccines for destruction. The vaccines include all those supplied by the HSE national cold-chain delivery service – ie those used in the primary childhood immunisation schedule, schools programmes, influenza and pneumococcal vaccination programmes and at-risk programmes, eg hepatitis B vaccines.

In 2013, €780,000 (119,497 doses) worth of unused vaccines were sent for destruction by the HSE. This compares with €1.16 million (237,524 doses) worth of vaccines sent to be destroyed in 2012, and is about half the 2009 peak figure of €1.57 million (249,088 doses).

The HSE said the value of vaccines destroyed from 2013 stock was less than 1.9 per cent of the vaccine budget of €36 million and in line with the World Health Organisation target of less than 5 per cent for wastage.

The figures do not include the leftover vaccines used in the mass “swine flu” H1N1 pandemic vaccination programme in 2009/2010, which included €2 million (250,000 doses) of unused H1N1 vaccine (Celvapan), which expired in 2010, and 900,000 doses of the Pandemrix vaccine, which expired in 2011.

About 40-60 per cent of the vaccines returned each year are unused flu vaccines, while the remainder are other vaccines that have been damaged, usually due to a break in the cold-chain due to a power cut or similar problem.

The amount of flu vaccine purchased is based on a 75 per cent uptake by the public and additional contingency stock. All developed countries keep such contingency stocks in case of large flu outbreaks.

Flu vaccine lasts for only one season as flu strains change every year.