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...

Link to the questionnaire: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1KbhmioGa_Nl7_2unTMtcHzZ1F82YtYIdxozFjXVt9ng/viewform The International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) seeks to generate evidence useful to decision-makers and managers to focus resources on the most promising approaches to im...

This is a report based on a brief survey on the use of computerized LMIS in public health supply chains conducted on the International Association of Public Health Logisticians (IAPHL) forum. Dear Colleagues, I propose to your attention a brief survey report on the use of computerized LMIS in ...

Dear Friends, I must congratulate the GAVI board for taking a decision on introducing IPV. I hope the IPV would be introduced through cost effective intra-dermal method by enhancing its antigenic content and also through cost effective disposable syringe and needle method. Also the decision for inc...

Oxytocin is a lifesaving drug - it is one of the 13 commodities on the list of the United Nations Commission on Life-Saving Commodities for Women and Children. - See more at: http://everywomaneverychild.org/component/content/article/1-about/409-un-commission-sets-out-plan-to-make-life-saving-health...

The data given for solar-powered refrigerators in the PQS sheets is not given consistently enough so that comparisons of various models can be made. The data needed for a fair comparison most often is energy consumption at 32 deg C without ice making, energy use with ice making and quantity of ic...

IPAC-2013Aprilreport-FINAL.pdf   This report covers the highlights of the meeting held in April 2013 in Geneva. The various sessions covered the following topics: Session I. Framework of the Unvaccinated The presentation covered the components of the Tools for Identifying Root Causes of C...

Records for Life Contest The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is launching an international contest to redesign the child health record. Winners of the contest - as determined by judges Melinda Gates, Anthony Lake, Walt Orenstein, Margaret Chan, and Robert Fabricant - will receive up to US $50,00...

Often we are not so familiar with the objects which we use very frequently. Knowing a little more helps in working with more confidence and perfection. Cleanliness is usually taken for granted. Revitted strap which keeps the lid entangled may be cumbersome to operate but it does an important functio...

While monitoring Routine Immunization sessions, finding fully melted relatively warm ice-packs but Vaccine Vial Monitor(VVM) in usable condition is common, but finding frozen ‘T’ series vaccines with unconditioned ice-packs in the field is also common. VVM being heat sensitive cannot measure freeze ...

Current immunization coverage rates in the WHO European Region are insufficient to ensure herd immunity and stop the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases. In some countries, rates have now fallen well below the WHO-recommended threshold (95%). Across the Region, up to 1 million infants born each y...

by Beth Balderston, PATH and Heidi Lasher, consultant To accompany the article “Traveling exhibit highlights supply system innovations” in the May 2013 Op.ti.mize newsletter, project Optimize has published a photo set on Flickr of its traveling exhibit at the TechNet Consultation in Dakar, Sene...

by Magdalena Robert and Laurie Werner, Decade of Vaccines Collaboration In March, the Decade of Vaccines Collaboration produced the final, illustrated version of the Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP), with a foreword by the Decade of Vaccines Collaboration Leadership Council and important annexes...

by Raja Rao, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recently conducted a landscape analysis of the market for cold chain equipment, in particular vaccine refrigerators and freezers. The analysis was based on extensive interviews with cold chain equipment exper...

by Bjorn Melgaard, Judy Roberts, Prashant Yadav, Anup Akkihal, Robert Steinglass, and Gisele Corrêa Miranda, Optimize Project Advisory Group members Following the 2013 TechNet Consultation in Dakar, Senegal, members of the Optimize Project Advisory Group (PAG) met for the last time to discuss pro...

by Daniel Thornton and Stefano Malvolti, GAVI Alliance The GAVI Alliance will spend $7 billion on lifesaving vaccines from 2011 to 2015, supporting countries to immunize an additional quarter of a billion children. Until now, although members of the Alliance have worked on particular parts of the...

by Heidi Lasher, consultant, and Kathleen Tiffay, PATH Much of the knowledge generated by project Optimize and its partners is being shared in reports and presentations published on the PATH and Word Health Organization (WHO) websites. However, it is not always easy to reach national-level audien...

by Daniel Thornton, GAVI; Henry Mwanyika, PATH; Drew Meek, WHO; Ulrike Kreysa, GS1 A project in Tanzania is exploring how best to implement barcodes on vaccine packaging. By adding barcodes to the shipping containers and secondary packaging used to transport vaccines, project organizers hope to le...