Participants:
Twenty-two EPI managers and NITAG chairs from 11 countries (Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and United Arab Emirates) attended, while other Agencies represented included CDC, Jordan CDC, EMPHENET, UNICEF-MENARO and WHO Headquarters.
Purpose:
The workshop objectives were to:
- support countries on the development of their national policy for the life course immunization and integration,
- discuss the lessons learnt from COVID-19 vaccination experience, elaborate on the regional plan for health worker vaccination,
- review the vaccination catch up policy,
- integration of EPI into PHC for better Universal health Coverage.
Details:
The facilitators were from WHO/EMRO, WHO-Headquarters and CDC Antlanta. The mode of delivery had a mixed approach with presentations and group work with plenary sessions. Finally, countries developed/updated action plans for life- course vaccination, catch up policy, new vaccine introductions and integration of EPI into the PHC
As part of the way forward, the key recommendation were:
- Continue to maintain political commitment for life course and integration within EPI and PHC.
- Engage stakeholders and partners while updating and adapting the national immunization strategy including the life course immunization.
- Review of the regional immunization agenda 2030 indicators for life- course and
integration, and consider country level indicators according to national priorities. - Review, update and enforce catch-up vaccination policy and schedule.
- Leverage COVID-19 experience to progress on digitalization of immunization information management system, integrated with HMIS.
- WHO EMRO to develop Regional framework for HW vaccination .
- Consider the recent SAGE recommendations for HPV introduction in terms of adjusting the target and the one dose schedule.
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Author: Mohammed Osama Mere, WHO EMRO