Islamabad, October 6, 2016 - Federal EPI conducted its first ever independent vaccine audit to streamline the vaccine stocks and management system through identification of loopholes and issues. Findings of the vaccine audit were shared in the provincial consultative meeting.

An independent third party auditors along with representatives of GAVI mission visited vaccine ware houses situated at federal and provincial EPI departments to get first hand information about the storage, record keeping and distribution mechanism of the vaccine stocks.

Dr. Syed Saqlain Ahmad Gilani, National Program Manager, EPI at the occasion of provincial consultative meeting said that the practice of first ever vaccine audit will help in managing and updating the vaccine systems of the country. “We will continue to hold the independent audit of vaccine stocks in the country at regular intervals”, added Dr. Gilani.

While sharing the findings of the audit, representatives of GAVI mission expressed an overall satisfaction on the quality of vaccine stock management including the storage and distribution mechanisms. Auditors shared that despite of the electricity issues, backup systems are working properly at the federal and provincial ware houses as a result of which the validity/potency of the vaccines is being observed appropriately on regular basis. It was shared that vaccine distribution on the principle of “first come first out” is to be focused more at district levels. Manual record keeping needs to be replaced with vaccines logistic management information system (vLMIS) at all areas.

Provinces also shared their feedback on the findings of the audit. Provinces urged that standardized tools should be used for vaccines storage and distribution. Issues of dearth of human resource were also highlighted by provinces.