KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry will continue to monitor the supply of all influenza vaccines into the country due to an increase in demand among consumers for prevention of the illness.
Its minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said vaccines are not imported by the ministry, but brought in by suppliers based on orders from private healthcare facilities.
“We will continue to monitor the distribution of vaccines and I hope it is being distributed evenly,” he said when met at Universiti Malaya yesterday.
Clarifying further on the vaccine supply, he urged the public to avoid buying the vaccines from online sources.
On Wednesday (Feb 19), Dr Dzulkefly said on Twitter that 430,028 doses of influenza vaccines arrived in Malaysia last month, and another 203,156 doses would arrive by the end of this month.
The supply of these 633,174 doses in this two-month period exceeded the total number of orders for last year.
Based on the existing standard operating procedure, a supplier for any vaccine must furnish a delivery document to the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) two weeks prior to the arrival of the stock.
A source said vaccines only arrive in the country after obtaining necessary permission with documentation from the Health Ministry.
“This is how the ministry updates information on the latest supplies of vaccines in the country. After being given the clearance, only then these suppliers are allowed to bring in the stock.”
The source said the ministry also discouraged the public from purchasing such vaccines online as suppliers might not store the vaccines in a proper way.
New Straits Times was also told that vaccine suppliers must be registered with the ministry.
However, private healthcare facilities could seek permission from the ministry if they wanted to source vaccines from unregistered suppliers when there was an increase in its demand.
In citing an example, the source said a private hospital could source for vaccines from an unregistered supplier overseas only if the private hospital obtained permission from the ministry.
“In such cases, the ministry would conduct checks on a supplier to expedite the approval process. A special approval will be given only if all requirements were met.”
NST was also told that public healthcare facilities such as hospitals would administer vaccines to frontline staff such as doctors and nurses, while other frontliners like custom officers have also been known to be administered with vaccines.
Visit the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency website at https://www.npra.gov.my for info on vaccines.