The annual meeting of the Safe Injection Global Network (SIGN) was held from 30 November to 2 December 2009. The following are some of the presentations on Healthcare Waste Management. Many thanks to Selma Khamassi for sending these to me to be shared with TechNet21 readers. HCWM--10 Years: Yves Cha...

Robert Chen sends in this request. For a study assessing injection site abscesses in a developing country, photos are needed for the training material. The challenge is that injection site abscesses are uncommon in developed world where cameras are common and more common in less developed settings...

Thank you Nahad Sadr-Azodi for sharing this information with TechNet21 readers. The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, in cooperation with United Nations Children’s Fund, is launching the inaugural Vaccination Week in the Eastern Mediterranean Region init...

Many thanks to Tasnim Partapuri for sharing this information from the The Communication Initiative website. Every year since 2006, the World Health Organization (WHO) has dedicated one week in April to raising awareness about the importance of immunization as a public health strategy in Europe....

Vaccine Wastage Assessment, India By Ranjit Dhiman / Satish Kumar Gupta- UNICEF India In collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Government of India, UNICEF with WHO and partners carried out a vaccine wastage assessment in India. The aim of the study was to understand current vaccine wastage at v...

Since 1994, with USAID funding, JSI has conducted international courses on supply chain management of health commodities. These training activities have been a pivotal part of the supply chain support USAID has funded through the USAID/DELIVER PROJECT and the DELIVER and FPLM projects before that. A...

Dear Moderator, I'd be grateful to know if any of your readers have experience with use of cell phones for transmission of cold chain stock position data from the district level upwards. Kenya has started doing this, using purpose developed software. Best rgds, Bob Davis (email: [email=robert.davi...

It's really a great step in using mobile phones for the welfare of public health. I am looking anxiously to know more about it. Please keep on posting more about this. This is really a great job....

Dear all, Do you have information as to which countries, especially among European countries, require written consent for vaccinating against pandemic flu? I was asked by the ministry to try to find out what the policy in other countries is. In Croatia, the ministry asked vaccination providers to ...

Many thanks to Diana Chang Blanc for sharing this with TechNet21 readers. Good day to you all, We are pleased to announce the “Overview Course in Supply Chain Management of Health Commodities", a new training designed to increase professionals of the health sector’s understanding of logistics ...

Rabies has been one of the most dreaded diseases, often leading to painful death in human beings. Globally, around 55,000 people die of Rabies and, of them, 20,000 die in India alone. The animal bite incidence rate is 17.4/1000 that is 17.4 million bites every year in India. The frequency of animal ...

Dear all, I have a question on multi-dose vial policy for adjuvanted pandemic vaccines. We received Focetria, MF59C.1 adjuvanted vaccine in 10-dose presentations which contains thimerosal as a preservative. Can WHO multi-dose vial policy be applied to this vaccine (to use it four weeks after the...

The Lagos State Waste Management Authority organised their fourth Medical Waste Summit, which was held on 26 and 27 October, 2009 at the National Arts Theatre Iganmu, Lagos with the theme “Safe Management of Healthcare Waste: The Time is Now”. This short report on the proceedings has been shared wit...

Managing cold chain equipment is getting easierby Sophie Newland, David Lubinski, and John Lloyd, PATH Introducing newer, bulkier vaccines into a national immunization schedule can be a tricky job for logisticians. Is there enough space? Is there enough equipment? Is it in the right location? Is t...

Fee-based immunization in Vietnam—what can we learn?by Dai Hozumi, PATH, and Nguyen Van Cuong, NIHE While most people in Vietnam receive traditional Expanded Programme on Immunization vaccines free from government-run clinics and health centers, many others elect to receive these and other immunizat...

Albania explores computerized immunization registries by Jan Grevendonk, PATH, and Olivier Ronveaux, WHO In early 2009, the Albanian Institute for Public Health (IPH) asked Optimize, a WHO-PATH collaboration, to develop a strategy for a computerized national immunization registry and vaccine orderin...

by Michel Zaffran, WHO; Julie Milstien, consultant; and Modibo Dicko, WHO It has long been known that certain vaccines are stable for long periods of time at temperatures outside the standard cold chain protocol of 2[sup]o[/sup] to 8[sup]o[/sup]C. However, until recently, there have been few rea...

Optimizing presentation and packaging for HPV vaccinesby Debbie Kristensen and D. Scott LaMontagne, PATH Working in collaboration with the Vaccine Presentation and Packaging Advisory Group (VPPAG), representatives from the public health community have initiated a series of studies to guide presentat...

Dear colleagues, According to your experience, what is the main target (and steps) population for H1N1 vaccine? In my country, first healthcare professionals (this week) followed by school children (age definition not described yet). For childhood population: you prefer to first vaccinate the high r...

Dear Sir Good day. I have faced one question regarding NIDs, which is: if one of the governorates or provinces in any country achieves a routine immunization coverage rate of more than 95%, is there need to proceed with NIDs? This question was raised in Iraq. My first response: I reminded him (o...