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April 15, 2002

INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS

"A$3.3 Million Down Drain"

Advertiser (AU) (www.theadvertiser.news.com.au) (04/13/02) P. 1; Maiden, Samantha

In Australia, thousands of doses of influenza vaccine are destroyed every year because they were not used in time.  On Friday, the group Overseas Pharmaceutical Aid for Life, which holds a state contract to collect the vaccine for destruction, criticized the dumping of the vaccines, calling it a "terrible waste."  The federal Health Department recently stated that approximately 150,000 doses of the flu vaccine were destroyed in 2001, because they had exceeded their use-by date.  The flu vaccine is provided free of charge by the government to 2.4 million people aged 65 or over.  Each dose costs A$22.40 each, which means that A$3.36 million worth of vaccines were thrown out last year.  This waste comes at a time when the Australian government is under pressure to rein in the health budget by increasing prescription costs for families and pensioners by 30 percent.

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