ivci:interpreting_vaccine_histories [International Vaccines Codes Initiative]

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Immunization records are increasingly exchanged across jurisdictions, languages, and health systems. Providers and immunization programs regularly encounter vaccination histories originating outside their local context, including records from other countries, humanitarian settings, older paper documents, or legacy systems. Interpreting these records requires determining what vaccine was given, what disease protection it confers, and how it should be represented in the local system.

The International Vaccine Codes Initiative (IVC) and NUVA focus specifically on the coding and identification of vaccination concepts—that is, defining what vaccinations exist and what diseases they protect against, independent of local policy, workflow, or software. This conceptual clarity is a foundational input to downstream activities such as record interpretation, forecasting, coverage assessment, and clinical decision support.

IVC does not provide translation services, operational guidance, or endorsements of specific tools or workflows. However, understanding the practical challenges faced by providers and immunization programs is essential to identifying gaps in vaccine concept representation and coding. For that reason, we provide the following links as examples of downstream resources developed by jurisdictions and organizations to support interpretation of immunization records from outside their local context.

These resources are shared for awareness only:

They may not be
  * complete, current, or applicable in all settings.
  * Their inclusion does not imply validation, recommendation, or warranty by IVC.
  * They illustrate real-world challenges that inform ongoing work on vaccine concept clarity and interoperability.

====== Selected External Resources ======

  * King Co: [[https://cdn.kingcounty.gov/-/media/king-county/depts/dph/documents/health-safety/health-programs-services/immunizations/imm-records-outside-us.pdf?rev=7a6fec0356f343e4a69a026d51dc3987&hash=1C577F852EC2BDDB8925FCA7C507F105|Understanding Immunization Records from Outside the United States]]
    * (See also the various resource links posted on their [[https://kingcounty.gov/en/dept/dph/health-safety/health-centers-programs-services/immunizations/provider-resources/foreign-imm-records|Foreign Immunization Records]] website
  * Washington: [[https://doh.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2025-11/348-1130-GuideReviewingInternationalImmunizationRecords.pdf|Guide to Reviewing International Immunization Records]]
  * Immunize CO: [[https://www.immunizecolorado.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Newcomer-Health-Webinar-Slides.pdf|Newcomer Health: Community Health Programs & Translating International Vaccine Records]] (webinar slides)
  * New Mexico: [[https://www.nmhealth.org/publication/view/help/453/|Foreign Language Terms: Aids to translating foreign immunization records]]
  * Illinois AAP: [[https://illinoisaap.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Tips-for-Reading-International-Vaccine-Records-3.15-1.pdf|Tips for Reading International Vaccine Records]]