In Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), which had great problems ingetting coronavirus vaccines, several thousand doses of vaccines could be destroyed in the following period, because theirexpiration date is coming to an end.
Authorities in both entities reject allegations that hundreds of thousands of doses of vaccines are endangered, and think that the percentage will be small, although certain stocks will run out. As we cannot donate them, the vaccines will most likely be destroyed or burned.
Apart from the fact that the interest of citizens in vaccination is at an unsatisfactory level, we are also facing another issue, and that is that the vaccine supplies will expire soon, primarily doses of AstraZeneca. In order to be used, one of the solutions is to shorten the revaccination time. According to the Institute of Public Health of the Federation of BiH (FBiH), 319 thousand Astrazeneca vaccines are currently in stock, with a deadline of October 31st. The plan is to use 225 thousand for the second dose by that time, which means that not all stocks will expire.
”So we will have about 100.000 doses left that we will be able to use both as the first and as the second because we now have eight weeks until the end of that period, and revaccination of four to six. So, there will be, but not hundreds of thousands,” said Sinisa Skocibusic, Acting Director of the Institute of Public Health of the FBiH.
As the deadline expires, we will not be able to donate what has been left, just as certain supplies were donated to BiH in that way. The only solution is destruction or incineration, and they already have announcements from Republika Srpska (RS) that 55.000 AstraZeneca vaccines that have expired will be destroyed, most likely burned, and the question is who will take responsibility for that. Authorities in RS do not see a problem in this, because they state: donations were accepted, distributed among the entities.
“Many countries have got rid of their supplies in this way, the smallest percentage of that is currently in BiH. It is cheaper for someone to destroy those vaccines than to leave them to decay elsewhere. What is very important to know is that in addition to the incident in Prijedor with 1000 components of the second dose that RS used all the vaccines it paid for during the warranty period and that there was not a single case that they failed, ” told Nenad Stevandic, Deputy Director of the University Clinical Center (UCC) of RS.
And while we still record the lowest rate of vaccination in Europe, the authorities are still repeating the same. The solution, even for this problem, is vaccination or revaccination. It means we don’t really have the luxury of calculating with the seconddose.
“There is a lack of education so I think we should talk to people to convince them that this is one of the best preventive measures in suppressing any disease. It means if you have a vaccine you are successful,” stated Jurica Arapovic, infectologist at the Clinic for Infectious Diseases of University Clinical Hospital (UCH) of Mostar.
Apart from AstraZeneca, about 19.500 doses of Pfizer should be consumed during the months of September and October, otherwise, those doses will also become unusable, BHRT writes.
E.Dz.
