First regional workshop on “The Role of Demand for Vaccines” was conducted by IIHMR University, Jaipur recently. The workshop was organized as the partial fulfilment of the ongoing online courses on Vaccine Economics for COVID-19 jointly conducted by John Hopkins University School of Public Health, Baltimore, USA and IIHMR University, Jaipur during October 17 to October 13, 2020. 259 participants from around the globe registered for this online course, out of which 41 were from India.
The workshop was attended by 23 participants from eminent health and allied organizations including Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, State Ministry, WHO, UNDP, UNICEF, Tata Trust, Clinton Health Access Initiative and IIT Kharagpur. The workshop was chaired by Dr. P. R. Sodani, President, IIHMR University Jaipur. The moderator was Dr. Sunil Rajpal, Assistant Professor, IIHMR University, Jaipur.
The focus of the workshop was to discuss the intricacies pertaining to the factors determining a demand for vaccines, particularly in the Indian context. With the outbreak of COVID-19, identifying the patterns of demand for vaccines is critical to effectively strategize and ensure larger coverage, and benefits across the heterogeneous landscape of the country. The participants from diverse professional background provided their valuable inputs regarding how cost and expected benefits of vaccines, government interventions towards communication and media can play a pivotal role in escalating vaccine demand.
Dr. Pankaj Somani from National Program Officer UNDP stated “Increasing and maintaining vaccination uptake is vital for vaccines to achieve their success. Addressing low vaccination requires an adequate understanding of the determinants of the problem, tailored evidence-based strategies to improve uptake, and monitoring and evaluation to determine the impact and sustainability of the interventions”. Further, Dr. Sunil Rajpal pressed on the contextual issues related to the demand of vaccine economics in India.
“Externalities and the higher extent of government interventions make the vaccine economics a distinct domain which assumes further policy salience and an exclusive focus especially in the current times of pandemic,” said Dr. Sunil Rajpal, Assistant professor, IIHMR University, Jaipur. At the end of the session, Dr. P R Sodani in detail elaborated on the several multifaceted issues of vaccine economics in India such as Types of externalities, Contagion levels of disease, Individual and Community level behaviour, Cultural beliefs, and Socioeconomic backgrounds.
“With the vast and diverse geography of India along with second highest population base, a comprehensive understanding on demand patterns for the vaccine is crucial for effective resource allocation and equitable distribution,” said Dr. P R Sodani, President, IIHMR University, Jaipur.
The IIHMR University, Jaipur has conducted five such capacity-building workshops in India during 2017-2019 benefitting 85 programme managers and policymakers from Bangladesh, Ghana, India Malaysia, Myanmar, Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka.
