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...

Currently Abhay Clinics are providing vaccine refrigerators to private practitioners in their network. Government agencies use the old Bluestar or VestFrost ILRs at the block and district levels and Walk In Coolers above this. Voltas does not seem to make ILRs. The new Haier ILRs appear to be of a d...

Dear Friends, The ever increasing number of children getting paralysed in India is a matter of serious concern, nobody is talking about. Here is just a small evidence (see the attachment) to show that we need to look beyond polio eradication strategies to minimise the total number of children suffer...

Dear Friends, Here is more on intradermal delivery of vaccines. As many as 10 vaccines can be given intradermally to spare costs as well as doses, but unfortunately this is not promoted by vested interests. Please see the link on the WHO website: http://www.who.int/immunization_delivery/systems_poli...

New research results published today! Available at:(http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-698X/9?issue=S1). This is to announce the publication today of a journal supplement titled The Fallacy of coverage: uncovering disparities and improving immunization coverage - The Canadian International Immuni...

Information gathered from the Health Ministry through the RTI Act confirms the overall shortage of 17 crore doses for diphtheria, measles, tetanus and oral polio vaccine.The shortage for diphtheria vaccine is nine crore doses, followed by 3.14 crore for tetanus, three crore for oral polio vaccine an...

The Advanced Immunization Management (AIM) e-Learning website launched a new module on 7 October to support the World Health Organization's computer-based Measles Strategic Planning (MSP) tool. The MSP was developed to help countries develop measles vaccination strategies to meet their measles contr...

The Government of India's Health Ministry is developing a software which will keep a thorough record of all health campaigns, including immunisation. "The outcome of immunisation drives is not satisfactory. I asked my officers how they arrive at these figures and the reply was not very convinc...

Juliana Abakah-Katz from UNICEF sends in this contribution on the New and Emerging Talent Initiative Programme (NETI), whichis an entry point for external professionals interested in an international career with UNICEF. As part of UNICEF’s global talent management strategy to achieve its current and...

Dear Friends, A Modeling Study concludes that new vaccines could substantially reduce TB incidence and mortality. Similarily, I strongly feel that the recent 31% success with the new HIV vaccine could have been further enhanced if given in conjunction with ART. Please see the link below: http://www...

Dear Friends, Here is more on intradermal Influenza vaccine: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18652550                 http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/351/22/2286 The government of India is importing 2.8 million ...

Dear Friends, After Virorab, Sanofi-Pasteur has come out with a low-cost Intradermal Influenza vaccine Intanza® / IDflu® vaccine*, see the link below, http://198.73.159.214/sanofi-pasteur2/ImageServlet?imageCode=24890&siteCode=SP_CORP Dr. Omesh BhartiM.B.B.S.,D.H.M.,M.A.E.(Epidemiology)Dir...

Dear Friends, It is a great pleasure to know that now Virorav has also come out with the intradermal option (attachment). This will be a further boost to the intradermal ARV campaign in India to controll rabies. After Rabipur, Abhyrab and Indirav, this will be the fourth drug offer...

Dear Technet Subscribers, I have attached a study conducted in Pakistan on the use of re-designed immunization cards, in an attempt to provide relief from the almost exclusively CC and logistics focus of Technet's recent discussions (shades of the old Technet, when cold chain ruled!) Cheers, Tasnim ...

We would like to share a report on intradermal delivery of vaccines that was commissioned by PATH's Disposable Jet Injector Project and Project Optimize (a collaborative project between WHO and PATH). The report was authored by Julian Hickling and Rebecca Jones from Working in Tandem Ltd. The purpo...

Michel and others, Thanks for suggesting two different discussion tracks. Pioneers in EPI logistics such as yourself, James Cheyne, Modibo Dicko, John Lloyd have done and continue to do a formidable job of improving storage conditions, creating VVMs, creating transportation systems to reach geo...

Today, most vaccines are licensed for storage between 2-8°C, regardless of their true stability. While there are some vaccines that do need to be kept at this specific temperature range, studies have shown that most vaccines are able to withstand higher temperature ranges for a specific period of ti...

Dear Friends, The introduction of the pentavalent vaccine will further eat into the health budget as shown by Natasha Hsi, Abt Associates, Katherine Wolf, Emory University, Global Health Council (June 2, 2005). The study says that, with the introduction of the pentavalnent vaccine, the cost of routi...