OBJECTIVES:

The start of the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced vaccination patterns in South Africa. The objective of the study was to determine which vaccines were claimed and reimbursed from medical insurance schemes during 2020.

METHODS:

A retrospective drug utilisation study was conducted on medicine records of a private sector medical insurance scheme administrator in South Africa. The database contained over 2.6 million records for medicines in 2020. All vaccines in ATC group J07 that were claimed and reimbursed were analysed. No clinical information of patients was available. Microsoft Excel^® was used to calculate descriptive statistics.

RESULTS:

A total of 7066 vaccines were dispensed to 5250 patients (58.7% male patients) during 2020, at a total amount paid of R1809734.32. The average age of patients was 34.45 (SD=23.14) years. Most vaccines were viral vaccines (57.03%), followed by bacterial vaccines (28.77%) and bacterial and viral vaccines, combined (14.20%). Influenza vaccines (J07BB01, two trade names) were the most frequently dispensed, comprising 40.48% of all vaccines dispensed. Most vaccines were dispensed by pharmacies (35.30%), followed by registered nurses (29.23%). Only a small percentage was dispensed in hospitals. There was an increase in the dispensing patterns of viral vaccines (J07B) in the period just before the winter months (March and April 2020), specifically the influenza vaccine. The tetanus vaccine was the second most often dispensed (18.26%), followed by a vaccine protecting against six childhood diseases (10.60%). Generally fewer vaccines were dispensed as the year progressed, which was also a pattern seen with the overall number of prescriptions.

CONCLUSIONS:

The three main categories of vaccines followed a similar dispensing pattern to previous studies conducted on 2015 and 2018 data, with influenza vaccines dominating in March and April 2020. It seems as if fewer people were vaccinated in 2020.