1Allergy and Immunology Center, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
2Department of Pediatrics, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
3Yonsei Global Health Center Ethiopia Office, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
4Common Good Partners, Uijoengbu, Republic of Korea
5Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Paris, France
6Department of Public Health, Graduate School of Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
7National Academy of Medicine of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea
© 2024 Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Ethics Approval
Not applicable.
Conflicts of Interest
Jong-Koo Lee has been the editor-in-chief of Osong Public Health and Research Perspectives since October 2021. The other authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Funding
This research was supported by a grant from the KDCA (2023).
Availability of Data
All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article. For other data, these may be requested from the corresponding author.
Authors’ Contributions
Conceptualization: CRK, YJC, JKL; Data curation: CRK; Funding acquisition: JKL; Literature review: CRK, YJC; Methodology: all authors; Supervision: CKR, YJC, JKL; Validation: all authors; Visualization: CRK; Writing–original draft: CRK; Writing–review & editing: all authors. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Additional Contributions
The authors are grateful to Hajime Kamiya (Japan’s National Institute of Infectious Diseases) and Yung-Ching Lin (Taiwan CDC) for providing information on the specific status of VICPs in each country.
Category | Republic of Korea | Japan | Taiwan |
---|---|---|---|
Legal basis | Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act | Vaccination Act | Infectious Disease Prevention Act |
Funding source | National treasury | National treasury | Compensation Relief Fund |
Administrative entity (deliberation body) | Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (Expert Committee on Vaccine Injury Compensation) | Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare (Disease and Disability Review Board) | Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (Vaccine Injury Compensation Program Working Group) |
Appeal and judicial process | Administrative reconsideration and judicial proceedings are possible in the Republic of Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. | ||
Scope of coverage | Death, disability, and illness due to: | Death, disability, and illness due to: | Death, disability, severe illness, and other adverse reaction due to: |
(1) Mandatory vaccines | (1) Routine vaccines for category A diseases | (1) Routine and compulsory vaccines | |
(2) Temporary vaccines | (2) Temporary vaccines | (2) Self-paid vaccines | |
(3) Products to prevent or cure diseases during a pandemic or bioterrorism | (3) Routine vaccines for category B diseases | (3) Specially imported vaccines | |
(4) Off-label vaccines | |||
(5) Post-exposure prophylaxis | |||
Standard of proof | (1) Definitely relateda) | (1) Definitely relateda) | (1) Associateda) |
(2) Probably relateda) | (2) Probably relateda) | (2) Indeterminatea) | |
(3) Possibly relateda) | (3) Cannot make decision that the event is related due to the lack of informationa) | (3) Unassociated | |
(4) Probably not related | (4) Not related | ||
(a) There is insufficient data on the vaccine and adverse reactions | |||
(b) Cases where the event is more likely to be due to other reasons than the vaccine | |||
(5) Definitely not related | |||
Available benefits | - Medical expenses | (1) Routine vaccinations for category A diseases and temporary vaccinations | If the causality assessment results are “associated” or “indeterminate”, the compensation amount is differentiated with lower and upper limits considering the severity of the injuries and paid as a lump-sum payment. |
- Fixed nursing expenses | - Medical expenses and allowance | ||
- Lump-sum compensation for the disabled | - Nursing pension for children with disabilities | ||
- Lump-sum death compensation | - Disability pensions | ||
- Funeral expenses | - Lump-sum death payment | ||
- Funeral expenses | |||
(2) Routine vaccinations for category B diseases | |||
- Medical expenses and allowance | |||
- Disability pensions | |||
- Survivor’s pension | |||
- Lump-sum survivor’s payment | |||
- Funeral expenses |
Target | Vaccine | Republic of Korea | Japan | Taiwan |
---|---|---|---|---|
Children | Tuberculosis (BCG) | ○ | ○ | ○ |
Hepatitis B | ○ | ○ | ○ | |
Diphtheria/tetanus/pertussis (DTP) | ○ | ○ | ○ | |
Poliovirus (IPV) | ○ | DTaP-IPV | DTaP-Hib-IPV | |
Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) | ○ | ○ | ||
Pneumococcus | ○ | ○ | ○ | |
Rotavirus | ○ | ○ | NA | |
Measles/mumps/rubella (MMR) | ○ | MR (mumps: optional) | ○ | |
Varicella | ○ | ○ | ○ | |
Japanese encephalitis | ○ | ○ | ○ | |
Human papillomavirus | ○ | ○ | NA | |
Influenza | ○ | NA | ○ | |
Hepatitis A | ○ | NA | ○ | |
Older adults | Seasonal influenza | ○ | ○ | NA |
Pneumococcal | ○ | ○ | ○ |
Category | Republic of Korea | Japan | Taiwan |
---|---|---|---|
Legal basis | Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act | Vaccination Act | Infectious Disease Prevention Act |
Funding source | National treasury | National treasury | Compensation Relief Fund |
Administrative entity (deliberation body) | Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (Expert Committee on Vaccine Injury Compensation) | Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare (Disease and Disability Review Board) | Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (Vaccine Injury Compensation Program Working Group) |
Appeal and judicial process | Administrative reconsideration and judicial proceedings are possible in the Republic of Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. | ||
Scope of coverage | Death, disability, and illness due to: | Death, disability, and illness due to: | Death, disability, severe illness, and other adverse reaction due to: |
(1) Mandatory vaccines | (1) Routine vaccines for category A diseases | (1) Routine and compulsory vaccines | |
(2) Temporary vaccines | (2) Temporary vaccines | (2) Self-paid vaccines | |
(3) Products to prevent or cure diseases during a pandemic or bioterrorism | (3) Routine vaccines for category B diseases | (3) Specially imported vaccines | |
(4) Off-label vaccines | |||
(5) Post-exposure prophylaxis | |||
Standard of proof | (1) Definitely related |
(1) Definitely related |
(1) Associated |
(2) Probably related |
(2) Probably related |
(2) Indeterminate |
|
(3) Possibly related |
(3) Cannot make decision that the event is related due to the lack of information |
(3) Unassociated | |
(4) Probably not related | (4) Not related | ||
(a) There is insufficient data on the vaccine and adverse reactions | |||
(b) Cases where the event is more likely to be due to other reasons than the vaccine | |||
(5) Definitely not related | |||
Available benefits | - Medical expenses | (1) Routine vaccinations for category A diseases and temporary vaccinations | If the causality assessment results are “associated” or “indeterminate”, the compensation amount is differentiated with lower and upper limits considering the severity of the injuries and paid as a lump-sum payment. |
- Fixed nursing expenses | - Medical expenses and allowance | ||
- Lump-sum compensation for the disabled | - Nursing pension for children with disabilities | ||
- Lump-sum death compensation | - Disability pensions | ||
- Funeral expenses | - Lump-sum death payment | ||
- Funeral expenses | |||
(2) Routine vaccinations for category B diseases | |||
- Medical expenses and allowance | |||
- Disability pensions | |||
- Survivor’s pension | |||
- Lump-sum survivor’s payment | |||
- Funeral expenses |
NIP, national immunization program; BCG, Bacillus Calmette–Guérin; IPV, inactivated polio vaccine; DTaP, diphtheria/tetanus/acellular pertussis; NA, not applicable; MR, measles/rubella.
VICP, vaccine injury compensation program. Compensation is made for cases that fall into these categories.