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...

It is customary to develop and share user-friendly ‘OPERATIONAL GUIDELINES’ for clarity and uniformity among service providers as and when a new vaccine (e.g. H1N1, Pentavalent) is introduced or there is a change in strategy (e.g. from 1 dose measles vaccine to 2 doses). From this month (April 2013)...

With the launch of a new Decade of Vaccines (DoV) as outlined in the Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP) endorsed by the World Health Assembly in 2012, the world will be embarking on ambitious strategies to introduce the next generation of new vaccines and raise vaccination coverage to desired levels,...

The LOGIVAC project, jointly implemented by the Agence de Médecine Préventive (AMP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) , has launched, in collaboration with the Regional Institute of Public Health (Institut Régional de Santé Publique, IRSP), the first training degree programme in health logist...

In 2009, key staff at Tanzania’s Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MOHSW) and Medical Stores Department (MSD) declared the council health management team (CHMT) of the Iramba district to be one of the poorest performing teams in the country in the stock management of medicines and supplies. Tod...

Cross-posted from www.childsurvival.net with thanks! I wanted to let you know about an exciting new polio initiative announced last week. In a display of support for the new Eradication and Endgame Strategic Plan, more than 400 scientists and technical experts from 80 countries issued the Scient...

Sun Frost is considering building a cart-mounted vaccine storage refrigerator. It would incorporate mountain-bike type wheels so that it could be moved over rough terrain. The refrigerator would have a net storage volume of about 40 litres. It would be a side-opening one and similar to the refrigera...

Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) and partners have worked hard to combat maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) illnesses, but the burden of these conditions in Nigeria remains high. Last summer, as part of several strategic interventions to increase MNCH services for the most vulne...

The USAID | DELIVER PROJECT has published three new documents that can help health supply chain programme managers understand and track key performance indicators for the procurement process.The Procurement Performance Indicators Guide—Using Procurement Performance Indicators to Strengthen the Procu...

Sun Frost has been building vaccine storage refrigerators for the past 20 years. Sun Frost is now building a direct-drive ice pack freezer. Some new technologies incorporated into the design allows the freezer to run even at very low light levels. On a cloudy day if the output of the PV array is les...

Thank you Dr Robert Steinglass for directing our attention here. This contribution has been cross-posted from the International Association of Public Health Logisticians (IAPHL) with thanks. Those of you interested in subscribing to the discussions on this forum, please click here: http://knowledge-...

Thank you Dr Robert Steinglass for sharing these presentations and films with the forum. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) and Mount Sinai School of Medicine's Global Health Program conducted a conference titled "Lives in the...

As part of the support to the Decade of Vaccines' Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP), UNICEF is complementing the efforts by WHO and the GAVI Secretariat to work with governments and other stakeholders in two interrelated areas: The first is to support better tracking of expenditure on vaccines and i...