Workshop on immunization and surveillance data management for vaccine-preventable diseases

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Dates: 16-20 February 2025

Venue: Cairo, Egypt

Participants: Immunization Technical Officers and Data Managers of both the Ministry of Health (MoH) and WCO from 11 priority countries in the region attended the workshop.

Purpose: With cognizance that accurate and high-quality public health data serve as the backbone of effective immunization and disease surveillance programs, the workshop sought to enhance the capacity of participants in leveraging high-quality data to improve immunization outcomes and strengthen disease surveillance efforts across the region.

Workshop on Immunization and Surveillance Data Management for Vaccine Preventable Diseases Details: Strengthening data management ensures better monitoring of immunization coverage, early detection of disease outbreaks, and the implementation of targeted interventions that protect children and communities from VPDs. Despite progress in immunization coverage, challenges remain with data quality, internal consistency, and effective use of information for program enhancement.

The workshop sought to build the capacity of data managers in EMR countries, focusing on immunization and VPDs surveillance data management, data triangulation and the effective visualization and interpretation of data to improve EPI’s performance and outbreak detection and response.

The workshop combined theory and hands-on data management exercises.

Technical Sessions covered data quality, triangulation, coverage estimates, VPD management, outbreak detection, data uploading to xMART data warehouse (EMR VPI Mart), and data visualization (QGIS, Power BI).

Country teams assured the use of training skills acquired and the upload of data on xMART as well as adhering to the timelines of the 2024 eJRF completion. The post workshop evaluation indicated that participants were satisfied with the workshop, stating that knowledge and skills acquired will improve on data quality and use in their areas of work. WHO HQ and EMRO staff co-facilitated the workshop, ensuring seamless knowledge-sharing on VPD data management.

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Authors: Isaac Baffoe-Nyarko, Md Sharifuzzaman, Quamrul Hasan