Interchangeability of various combination vaccines
PRACTICAL ISSUES IN THE USE OF COMBINATION VACCINES Interchangeability It is unrealistic to expect that the same vaccine will always be available for each child at the time of each vaccination, given bulk vaccine purchasing through competitive bidding. The situation is further complicated by the fact that 25% of children see at least 2 different healthcare providers for vaccination during the first 2 years of life and that children remain in publicly funded healthcare plans for 9 months, on average. 41 Different practitioners are likely to stock different combination vaccines , and it will not be feasible to stock all brands of each type of licensed monovalent or combination vaccine. When multiple combination vaccines are available from several different manufacturers, practitioners will question whether the vaccines can be used interchangeably. This question is complex to answer even for monocomponent vaccines ; getting definitive answers for multicomponent v