Health officials with the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, and Nepal’s Department of Health Services and Child Health Division recently launched the Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) in the South Asian nation.
Officials anticipate the introduction of the vaccine will improve the health of Nepal’s citizens. A published article outlined the process of introducing the IPV in the region, which began with a single dose of IPV in September 2014. The target was children around 14 weeks old. Now, the IPV is included in Nepal’s national routine vaccination schedule.
Adding IPV to its schedule makes Nepal the first nation in South Asia to add this vaccine to its routine programs. Nepal is also the first country with GAVI’s support to have accomplished this.
The article also explains how this process helped Nepal introduced the IPV throughout the nation. National introductions require several steps and significant support from numerous stakeholders who are part of the policy level.
Nepal also implemented a new policy framework that uses WHO guidelines for introducing new vaccines along with speeding the launch of Hib, rota virus, and pneumococcal vaccines. Officials base this framework on a series of observations about the process and motivations for adopting new vaccines in countries that are supported by GAVI.
