Long-term Cold Storage Containers and Carriers for Heat/Freeze-sensitive Vaccines: Target Performance Criteria by Steve McCarney, PATH Project Optimize, a collaboration between the World Health Organization (WHO) and PATH, seeks to develop and galvanize support around a vision for the future of i...

by Steve McCarney, PATH Chihuahua, Mexico, just south of the US border, is so predictably sunny, one hardly needs to consult a newspaper to predict the weather. Chances are it will be sunny and dry. A few hours south, in Mexico City, the weather is more temperate and cloud cover more frequent dur...

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...

Is That a Toyota Prius in Your Refrigerator? by Steve McCarney, PATH Solar refrigeration has been a promising technology for rural health outposts in developing countries for two decades, but it has one fatal flaw: the batteries tend to die long before the rest of the system is ready to give up. ...

Senegal To Explore Integrated Supply Chains and New Delivery Models by Modibo Dicko, WHO; Dr. Aboubakry Fall, Ministry of Public Health Senegal; and Dr. Ndiouga Diallo, PATH Optimize is discussing an agreement with the Ministry of Health in Senegal to explore several new approaches to supply chai...

Dear Friends, Recently there have been a number of articles critical of the recommendations for pneumococcal and the pentavalent vaccines in high impact journals. I understand some of this has spilled over to the lay press and it will be good if we can have clarity on these issu...

Oral Polio Delivered Safely Without Icepacks in Recent Study by Ariane Halm, EPIET (European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training), and Olivier Ronveaux, WHO Optimizerecently completed a study with the World Health Organization (WHO) Country Office and the Ministry of Health in Mali to ...

In the course of the revision of the WHO Multi-dose Vial Policy (MDVP) we came across the question if there were any vaccines in multidose vials that had to be discarded less than 6 hours after having been opened. Some package inserts seem to indicate this, but it is not clear whether it would deter...

Temperature Monitoring Study To Commence in Vietnam and Uganda by Joanie Robertson, Huong Vu and James Cheyne, PATH While some vaccines will lose their potency if they are stored at temperatures above or below the standard 2° to 8°C, many vaccines are quite heat stable and can tolerate temperatures...

Vietnam To Assess and Evaluate Opportunities To Optimizeby Joanie Robertson and James Cheyne, PATH Optimize is drafting a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Health, National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE), in Vietnam to possibly implement two phases of work. The first,...

The third meeting on New and Underutilised Vaccine Implementation organised by WHO was held in Montreux, Switzerland from 16-19 June. There were 120 participants. Nine workshops were held covering various aspects like Surveillance, Preferred vaccine presentations, Coordination Between National Regul...

Dear Friends, Essential low cost vaccines not available but India strives for newer fancy and costly vaccines! Pl. See the attachment and comment. Pl. also read the original issue of Down to Earth. Thanks Omesh Bharti M.B.B.S.,D.H.M.,M.A.E.(Epidemiology) Directorate of Health Services,Himachal...

The Supply Chain Management Team within the USAID | DELIVER PROJECT is pleased to announce the availability of a new technical document, Logistics of Health Care Waste Management Information and Approaches for Developing Country Settings You can find the document on the USAID | DELIVER website www...

Seychelles injection safety and waste management assessment 25th June-7th July2009 Seychelles is a multi-ethnic tri-lingual state with its origin from three continents: Africa, Asia and Europe. It is an upper middle income developing country organised into 25 districts with a 2009 estimated mi...

On behalf of the chair of the Technologies and Logistics Advisory Committee (TLAC, http://www.who.int/immunization_deliver ... index.html) of WHO, Bruce Weniger, we are seeking ideas from the TechNet community for two new graphic “visual cues” for use on vaccine vials to guide health workers for whe...

Dear Padmini VPPAG is currently consulting on a paper on the generic Preferred Product Profile (gPPP) for new vaccines used by national programmes in developing countries. The document is currently open for consultation until July 15th. (see attached) Kindly find it at our site: http://sites.googl...

Vaccination Supplies Stock Management (VSSM) was first developed in WHO Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office (EMRO) in late 2006 and the later versions were developed by receiving support from WHO HQs. VSSM has been used in Sudan and Egypt and recently was installed in Laos, Iran, Uzbekistan and no...

Mojtaba Haghgou and Hailu Kenea write from Islamabad (Pakistan) and share newspaper clippings on the Federal Vaccine Store in Islamabad. The Government of Pakistan is committed to improving the quality parameters of the Federal Vaccine Store located in the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Islam...

Hello, I would like to enquire if someone has worked on setting up a manufacturing plant for safety boxes in Africa. If such an attempt has been made, what have the outcomes been. I am assuming the safety boxes are currently being imported from elsewhere. Regards, Abhisheka Jhunjhunwala...

What service life do you think vaccine refrigerators should be able to provide? For example, some products may suggest a 10 year life while others suggest longer, with typical repairs. PQS requires a 2 year warranty for a vaccine fridge. Solar powered vaccine fridge systems require solar electric mo...