The current study shows that vaccine use does not correlate directly

with national wealth, and a number of less developed countries outperformed richer nations. The global data shows that this was particularly notable amongst Latin American countries, where several had vaccine provision above the study “hurdle” rate, while a number of Eastern and Southern GSK1349572 European countries had lower levels of vaccine use, despite their more developed status. The sub-group analysis shows that a range of policy measures can influence immunization rates. The strongest correlation occurred with policies that have a direct connection with patients: reimbursement and communication. These appear more important than development status, while official public health authority vaccination recommendations alone appear to have little or no effect, but rather may be a necessary characteristic for greater vaccine use as they were present in all sub-group countries that achieved higher levels of provision. These findings mirror those from earlier work in Europe, which concluded that improving vaccine

coverage requires public communication/education campaigns and funding for vaccination, alongside health care workers proactively recommending immunization to at-risk patients [12]. The use of seasonal influenza vaccines not only helps protect against epidemics, but provides the foundations of pandemic preparedness [2]. Annual seasonal vaccine use sustains learn more production capacity, and therefore dictates the global capability to respond during a pandemic. However, despite the growth in seasonal influenza vaccine

use during the study period, uptake continues to be substantially lower than production capacity. A study by the international consultancy however Oliver Wyman [13] estimated that global seasonal manufacturing capacity stood at more than double the 449 million doses distributed by IFPMA IVS members in 2009, and was at least 50% greater than the WHO estimate of total worldwide production [9]. The consultancy predicted that within five years, capacity will increase to more than three times the highest level of vaccine provision achieved in the present study. Consequently, accelerating the growth in seasonal influenza vaccine use remains an important public health objective. This study shows that proactive vaccination policies provide an opportunity for many countries to achieve this, not just the most affluent. Indeed, of the nine countries in the sub-group analysis with notable increases in vaccine use (Brazil, China, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Thailand, UK, USA) all but one had reimbursement policies in place, and similarly all but one undertook broad communication activities, although four (46%) were classified as “less developed”.