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 Sean Blaschke and Lilian Nabunnya, UNICEF On April 26, 2013, health workers at 3,240 health facilities in Uganda were sent the following short-message service (SMS) text message: Does your Health Unit have a cold chain fridge for vaccines? Please answer YES / NO. If you have a fridge but it is ...

by Sy Gebrekidan (Merck), Debra Kristensen (PATH), Osman Mansoor (UNICEF), Gisele Corrêa Miranda (Fiocruz), Robert Steinglass (JSI), and Simona Zipursky (WHO) In 2009, the Vaccine Presentation and Packaging Advisory Group (VPPAG) published its first generic preferred product profile (gPPP) for ...

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...

Ice lining of Ice Lined Refrigerator has many functions other than maintaining cold holdover time. The attachment with photos may substantiate. This I wish to share with the viewers for additional inputs. Ice-lining.docx...

This article has been cross-posted from IVAC Blog with thanks! Lois Privor-Dumm MIBS, Director of Policy, Advocacy & Communications and Bruce Lee, Director of Operations Research at IVAC You are having 100 guests for an outdoor picnic and need to make the decision: do you buy big bottles ...

A Guide to Introducing a Second Dose of Measles Vaccine into Routine Immunization Schedules (WHO/IVB/13.03) has been published. It is available at: http://www.who.int/immunization/documents/WHO_IVB_13.03/en/index.html This document is for national immunization programme managers and immunizatio...

The need to keep vaccines in a 2°C to 8°C cold chain is a constraining factor for many immunization campaigns due to limited storage capacity and/or limited ice pack freezing capacity; supplementary immunization activities planned across sub-Saharan Africa to introduce MenAfriVac™ are a good example...

[size=18] Preventing vaccine freezing during transportation in Immunization Programs throughout the world remains the challenging task. Will reinventing the icepack (wheel) make a difference? Modified frozen Icepacks compared with conventional (not modified) frozen ice...

VaxTrak in Vietnam VaxTrak helps health workers keep track of vaccine stock. In 2011, the Vietnamese National Expanded Programme on Immunization introduced VaxTrak in the provinces of Phu Tho, Quang Tri, and Ben Tre. This short video shows how VaxTrak works and examines the impact it has had. [you...

We would be interested in hearing the experience of national immunization programmes in countries that use the same vaccine but different presentations (eg. pentavalent 10 dose for fixed sites, pentavalent 1 dose for outreaches). - What issues and challenges have you had with such an arrangement...

This summary is being cross-posted from the IAPHL discussion forum with many thanks! The International Association of Public Health Logisticians has recently been engaged in an interesting discussion about demand forecasting. Here are a few highlights from the email exchange. This includes dema...

Après le succès de la première édition de la licence professionnelle en logistique de la santé, l’AMP, l’OMS et l’IRSP lancent la deuxième édition de la formation diplômante en logistique de santé, développée avec l’appui du projet LOGIVAC. D’une durée d’un an, cette formation est sanctionnée par...

The popular Temperature Stability of Vaccines slides that were originally produced by Dr. Julie Milstien for the TechNet21 2006 consultation have been further updated. The authors have made some graphic changes based on feedback received from field trainings. You can access the document here: Te...

The USAID | DELIVER PROJECT has just published Alternative Public Health Supply Chains: Reconsidering the Role of the Central Medical Store (report) and Getting Products to People Without a Traditional Central Medical Store (policy brief). This report and policy brief identify a set of approaches th...

Cross-posted from http://deliver.jsi.com/ with thanks! Risk management for public health supply chains focuses on how to organize the logistics activities of the supply chain in order to ensure that commodities needed for health programs are continuously available, without disruption. The USAID |...

Effective public health supply chains require motivated and skilled staff with competency in various essential logistics functions. In many countries, a lack of trained staff is a frequent cause of supply chain system breakdown and poor performance. In an effort to help public health supply chain ma...

Joanie Robertson Senior Manager, Vaccine Supply Chain, GAVI Alliance wants your views on vaccine investment strategies and the vaccine supply chain. The GAVI Alliance is currently developing two strategies, and your views are important for both. The Vaccine Investment Strategy and the Supply Chain...

GlaxoSmithKline and Save the Children have launched a fund totalling $1,000,000 to reward organisations practicing innovative approaches for reducing under-5 child mortality. The organisation judged to combat child mortality in the most innovative and effective way will be eligible for an award of u...