Status of New Vaccine Introduction - Worldwide, 2016-2021

Abstract

This report describes the status of introductions globally for eight World Health Organization (WHO)-recommended new and underutilized vaccines, comprising 10 individual vaccine antigens. By 2021, among 194 countries worldwide, 33 (17%) provided all of these 10 WHO-recommended antigens as part of their routine immunization schedules; only one low-income country had introduced all of these recommended vaccines. Universal hepatitis B birth dose; human papillomavirus vaccine; rotavirus vaccine; and diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis-containing vaccine first booster dose have been introduced by 57%, 59%, 60%, and 72% of all countries worldwide, respectively. Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, rubella-containing vaccine, measles-containing vaccine second dose, and Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine have been introduced by 78%, 89%, 94%, and 99% of all countries, respectively. The annual rate of new vaccine introductions declined precipitously when the COVID-19 pandemic started, from 48 in 2019 to 15 in 2020 before rising to 26 in 2021. Increased efforts to accelerate new and underutilized vaccine introductions are urgently needed to improve universal equitable access to all recommended vaccines to achieve the global Immunization Agenda 2021-2030 (IA2030) targets.

FIGURE 1

Number of countries with new vaccine introductions, by vaccine and year — worldwide, 2016–2021 Abbreviations: DTPCV4 = first booster dose of diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis–containing vaccine; HepB-BD = hepatitis B vaccine birth dose; Hib = Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine; HPV = human papillomavirus vaccine; MCV2 = second dose of measles-containing vaccine; PCV = pneumococcal conjugate vaccine; RCV = rubella-containing vaccine; RV = rotavirus vaccine. * Vaccine introduction data for DTPCV4 was unavailable for 2016. For all other vaccines, no value indicates no introductions occurred for that year.

FIGURE 2

Percentage of countries that introduced selected World Health Organization–recommended vaccines into their national immunization schedule, by income status^† — worldwide, 2016–2021 Abbreviations: DTPCV4 = first booster dose of diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis–containing vaccine; HepB-BD = hepatitis B vaccine birth dose; HPV = human papillomavirus vaccine; USD = U.S. dollars. * Vaccines with lowest introduction in low-income countries' national immunization schedules as of 2021. HepB-BD indicates the introduction of universal HepB-BD into the national immunization schedule. In addition, 24 countries had implemented HepB-BD selective introduction, of which 22 were high-income and two were middle-income countries. ^† Country income categories were defined using the 2022 World Bank income classification except for Cook Islands, Niue, and Venezuela. Cook Islands is classified as high-income and Niue is classified as middle-income based on Central Intelligence Agency classification (https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/). Venezuela is classified as middle-income based on that country’s most recent World Bank classification (2019). Gross national income: low income <1,085 USD; middle income = 1,086–13,205 USD; and high income >13,205 USD.