The International Federation on Ageing released the findings of the “Improving Adult Vaccination Policy in Long-Term Care Settings” project. The COVID-19 pandemic has brutally highlighted the risk of serious complications, and even death, that residents in long-term care (LTC) settings experience from vaccine-preventable diseases. The tragic and sometimes unnecessary loss of life in these settings reinforces the need for specific vaccination policies to be an essential component of a life course approach to immunization. The groundbreaking study delivers critical baseline data on vaccination policies to help inform technical guidelines, as well as governmental and civil society dialogue and policy actions to protect and promote the functional ability of residents in LTC settings.

A systematic review of government websites, peer-reviewed articles, and grey literature from national peak organizations was used to gather and validate data on the extent to which LTC and vaccination is included within national aged care plans, national immunization programs (NIPs), and prioritized among national peak organizations across 19 countries. The countries studied, selected in consultation with colleagues from the World Health Organization (WHO) are Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, the United States, Australia, China, South Korea, Greece, Italy, the United Kingdom, Bhutan, India, Thailand, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kenya, and South Africa. The countries represent all six WHO regions.

Despite the existence of aged care plans and policies in all 19 countries, immunization policies were scarce.

• Immunization was absent from 80% of national aged care strategies and was only evident in Australia, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Thailand.
• About two-thirds (68%) of the countries studied referenced long-term care facilities in their national/provincial aged care plans; however, there were fewer countries where legislation, regulations, and policies governed the standards and delivery of services within these facilities.
• No countries studied included specific guidelines for LTCFs in their national immunization plan or aged care strategies and no national peak organizations across any of the countries advocated for or provided explicit vaccination recommendations for long-term care residents.

The study shines a powerful and painful light on the gaps in vaccination policies in long-term care facilities. There is an urgent need to reform vaccination policies to reflect the increased risk to VPDs that LTC residents have, as a mechanism to protect their right to health, independence, and functional ability.

Learn more at the Improving Adult Vaccination Policy in Long-Term Care Settings project website.