VACCINES IN THE NATIONAL IMMUNIZATION PROGRAM

Papua New Guinea has been providing expanded immunization services for more than 14 years. While immunization coverage has risen dramaticall y, recent surveys have raised serious questions regarding vaccine pote ncy at the service delivery level. Operational practices in vaccine di stribution and in the delivery system have been identified in this pap er. The international and national standards for vaccine management ar e described along with the main requirements for maintaining vaccine p otency. Quality assurance measures, the responsible personnel and the appropriate intervention points are detailed, along with easily applie d guidelines for implementation. An approach to assessing the effectiv eness of the quality assurance measures is proposed.