Thirty countries have now introduced IPV vaccine as part of objective 2 of the Polio Eradication and Endgame Strategic Plan. In August, the second of the polio endemic countries, Pakistan, introduced IPV nationally. There are now 30 countries that have introduced the vaccine. Nigeria, the other ende...

by Dan Brigden, WHO Over the last five years, project Optimize has worked closely with national immunization programs to explore innovative solutions to supply chain challenges. Each project has attempted to solve a particular immunization challenge—from an electronic immunization registry in Alb...

The 'Moving Warehouse' (MW) system of vaccine distribution issues vaccine as needed from a mobile stock to a series of stores situated on a pre-planned delivery circuit. MW has proved to be the best of the available choices in countries of three regions, by achieving the following comparative advant...

Icelined refrigerators have become a dominant standard worldwide for the safe storage of vaccine in areas of unreliable electricity supplies. In the 35 years since the start of the Product Information Sheets not a single upright, domestic compression refrigerator has been posted in the pre-qualified...

Member States Delegates discuss progress towards global immunization goals at the World Health Assembly, May 2014 Fifty-four speakers including 50 representatives from Member States[1], one Observer[2], Civil Society Organizations[3] and the GAVI Alliance took the floor during the discussion on t...

by Patrick Lydon, WHO, and Prashant Yadav, University of Michigan Project Optimize has recently published a document that examines the benefits, challenges, and rationale for integrating vaccine supply chains with the supply chains of other health commodities. It provides agencies, donors, decisi...

by Jan Grevendonk, WHO Project Optimize has worked closely with national immunization programs throughout the world to demonstrate innovative solutions to supply chain challenges. Many of these demonstration projects have involved the use of information systems to help improve the performance of im...

by Michel Zaffran, WHO In December 2007, a team of talented individuals from PATH and the World Health Organization (WHO) came together to form project Optimize, a five-year collaboration to identify ways in which supply chains can be optimized to meet the demands of an increasingly large and cos...

by Kamel Senouci and Lara Gautier, AMP Many national immunization programs rely on the professional advice of national immunization technical advisory groups (NITAGs) to help them make critical decisions on introducing new vaccines. Implemented in April 2008 by Agence de Médecine Préventive (AMP)...

The Georgia Institute of Technology has received a $100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The program funds individuals worldwide to explore ideas that can break the mold in how persistent global health and development challenges are solved. Jonatha...

by Mojtaba Haghgou, consultant, and Ramzi Ouichi, WHO A web-based version of the Vaccination Supply Stock Management (VSSM) tool has been successfully deployed in Iran. Now, project Optimize is collaborating with the Tunisian Ministry of Health to field-test wVSSM in Tunisia. VSSM is an open...

Cross-posted from the January 2012 [i]Global Immunization News issue. Many thanks. [/i] 31/01/2012 from UNICEF Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CEECIS) The suggestion that I post this news came from Mojtaba Haghgou--the VSSM expert. Following the decision...

Cross-posted from the January 2012 issue of GIN with thanks. 31/01/2012 from Madhav Balakrishnan, WHO HQ The Global Network for Post-marketing Surveillance (PMS) of Vaccines was established by WHO in early 2008 with a primary objective to monitor the safety of WHO prequalified vaccines supplied thr...

by Steve McCarney, John Lloyd, and Joanie Robertson, PATH A group of public- and private-sector partners are collaborating with project Optimize to evaluate a range of innovative transportation and storage containers for heat-sensitive drugs and vaccines that operate in environments with or without...

by Steve McCarney and Joanie Robertson, PATH Many health facilities in remote areas operate without grid electricity, have unreliable electricity, or find that using electricity is too costly. In these settings, solar energy is a promising solution for powering the storage and transportation need...

This message has been cross-posted from HPV Vaccine Global Community of Practice. With many thanks to Robert Steinglass. Dear Lisa, I agree with Sarah Mullins that there is a great opportunity to find links with a larger package of interventions, including tetanus vaccination. The following four r...

The first global training on effective vaccine management by Hailu Makonnen Kenea, Souleymane Kone, and Modibo Dicko from WHO; and Andrew Garnett, consultant. On July 29, 2010, after ten days of intensive and interactive training, 29 global, regional, country, and independent cold chain and log...

Tunisia to demonstrate innovative supply chain solutions for the futureby Patrick Lydon and Ibrahim Abdel Rahim, WHO A new era of immunization supply systems officially got under way on Friday, January 22, 2010, in Tunis, when the Ministry of Public Health, the World Health Organization (WHO), and ...

Tunisia Explores New Supply Chain Solutions for Health by Patrick Lydon, WHO After several preliminary discussions, World Health Organization (WHO) and PATH will collaborate on a project with the Ministry of Health in Tunisia to demonstrate and validate: (a) approaches that address anticipated ch...

Are Vertical Supply Chains Still Necessary?by Modibo Dicko, Coordinator, Project Optimize, WHO For the past 30 years, immunization—like many other health programs—has been managed as a vertical program with its own management team, reporting requirements, personnel, and supply chain. Attempts to li...