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HHS updates national vaccine plan
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The Department of Health and Human Services has unveiled a new National Vaccine Plan, which aims to ensure increased access to the protective benefits of vaccines over the next 10 years.
The main goals of the plan, which was discussed at the National Vaccine Advisory Committee Meeting last month, are to establish priority areas for new vaccines and vaccine enhancement, develop evidence-based surveillance strategies for assessing safety as well as efficacy of vaccines, create awareness of vaccine-preventable diseases, and also, to enhance coordination of all aspects of federal vaccine and immunization activities, according to Bruce Gellin, MD, MPH. Gellin is the director of the National Vaccine Program Office and recently presented the plan to the committee.
He said this plan is the first updated national vaccine plan since 1994. He said changes in the number of vaccines being administered, as well as recent health events including the pandemic influenza all demonstrated the need for revisions to the plan.
Stakeholder feedback
The plan is the product of extensive stakeholder feedback, which included input from public health and medical experts, a wide range of federal, state and local government officials, and the public.
Although vaccines are being developed to treat diseases and conditions and for non-infectious diseases, the focus of this plan is on vaccines for the prevention of infectious diseases as guided by the law that established the National Vaccine Program, Gellin said.
“The National Vaccine Plan articulates a vision that will ensure that the nation’s prevention strategies protect the public for the next decade and beyond,” said Assistant Secretary for Health Howard K. Koh, MD, MPH, who also attended the committee meeting.
Next steps include a series of regional meetings with stakeholders in the spring and summer of 2011, which will focus on how to implement the strategies laid out in the National Vaccine Plan. The final implementation plan will be completed by the end of 2011, Gellin said.
“The hardest part is yet to come,” Gellin said. “That is, we need to achieve the 10-year goals set up in this plan.”
Funding concerns
Gellin acknowledged that funding is a key issue when considering these goals.
In separate comments made during the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meeting later that same week, CDC Director Tom Frieden, MD, MPH, echoed Gellin’s comments on building a commitment to vaccination in the years to come.
He heralded the Vaccines for Children Program, noting “vaccines are a public good and the Vaccines for Children Program takes that good to another level by protecting children and their communities from an increasing number of diseases, as well as reducing health disparities in this country.”
Frieden said that the public sector is key in providing funding for the initiatives outlined in the National Vaccine Plan, including investing in vaccine research and development, and providing various vaccine safety experts to develop these vaccines.
“Since the VFC started 17 years ago, many new products have come to market, sometimes at higher prices,” Frieden said. “There are significant pressures on governmental budgets at the state, federal and local levels and [the ACIP’s] considerations of risk benefit are made even more complex when considering the risking costs of vaccines.” Frieden said the key, moving forward, is considering the evidence about new vaccines, committing manpower and funding to developing new vaccines and improving existing vaccines, as well as a commitment to be transparent regarding vaccine development, on both the government and vaccine manufacturer sides.
Frieden’s comments came within three weeks of a proposal by the House of Representatives’ House of Appropriations notes that their goal is to “reduce spending from the President’s fiscal year 2011 request by a total of $74 billion,” with many federal health agencies, such as the CDC, the NIH, the FDA, the Health Resources and Services Administration, the United States Agency for International Development, and others, absorbing a large brunt of those cuts. The proposed cuts would slash $220 million from FDA, $755 million from CDC, and $1 billion from NIH. – by Colleen Zacharyczuk