Importance Of Vaccines

A vaccine is defined by The World Health Organization (WHO) as “a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease”. Vaccines contain an agent that resembles a disease-causing infectious organism that is made from weakened or dead microbes, its toxins or one of the microorganism surface proteins.(1) When vaccines are administered to the human body, they stimulate the body's immune system. The recommended vaccinations for adults, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention are provided in table 1.

Importance of vaccinations

Vaccination significantly contributes to individuals’ good health and longer survival by preventing life threatening infectious diseases. Unfortunately however, adult immunization rates

In one review of 58 studies of older population and a review of 9 studies of healthcare professionals, it was found that multiple social and healthcare system related factors may impact adult immunization. Some of the most important factors found were vaccination affordability, accessibility and knowledge.

The Role of Community Pharmacists in providing vaccinations and its potential advantages.

In 1997, the APhA encouraged all pharmacists to embrace a level of involvement in providing immunization as either an educator (encouraging immunizations to patients served), facilitator (serving as a depot for vaccine distribution or host for immunizers), or immunizer (administering vaccinations consistent with state law).(11)

In order to reduce the risk of disease and increase vaccine uptake, many countries such as the US, Canada and Australia have started to expand the role of pharmacists working in community pharmacy to provide vaccines since the majority of community pharmacies are visited by a broad range of the social class and age groups of both sick and healthy people, are easily accessible, have convenient extended opening hours and potentially low

Found that The average direct costs paid for adult vaccination were lower in pharmacies compared with medical settings by 11%-20%.(12)

In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, there are 12,506 licensed pharmacists according to the law regulating Saudi pharmacy practice working in approximately 7,322 community pharmacies.(13)

Furthermore, the cost of vaccination is a function of the growing pressure of health expenditures on the government budget. Hence the benefit of getting the vaccine at a community pharmacy will remarkably reduce this pressure on government budget and thus promote prevention of disease since the community pharmacies have the advantage in comparison with other healthcare providers of extended opening hours, access to professional knowledge, more suitable locations without requiring an appointment or waiting and do not charge visit fees.

While the limited number of published articles and quality of available studies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia makes it difficult to directly compare pharmacist interventions to other strategies for improving immunization coverage, it is clear that vaccination at community pharmacies will make a significant contribution towards strengthening immunization programs to adult