Programmatic considerations for chikungunya vaccine introduction in countries at risk of chikungunya outbreaks: stakeholder analysis

Chikungunya can have longstanding effects on health and quality of life. Alongside the licensing of new chikungunya vaccines in the pipeline, it is important to understand the perspectives of stakeholders before vaccine rollout. Our study aim is to identify key programmatic considerations for chikungunya vaccine introduction in countries at risk of chikungunya outbreaks. We used purposive and snowball sampling to identify global, national, and subnational stakeholders from outbreak prone areas, including Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted and analysed using qualitative descriptive methods. We found that perspectives varied between tiers of stakeholders and geographies. Unknown disease burden, diagnostics, non-specific disease surveillance, undefined target populations for vaccination, and low disease prioritisation were critical challenges identified by stakeholders that need to be addressed to facilitate rolling out a chikungunya vaccine. Future investments should address these challenges to generate useful evidence for decision-making on new chikungunya vaccine introduction.