The Journal of Infectious Diseases has a special issue (March 1, 2012: Suppl.1) devoted to the very important topic of integration of immunization with health services delivery. The wide-ranging articles cover experiences, integration framework, integration in outreach services, improving coverage ...

Cross-posted from the WHO website. Many thanks to Hayatee Hasan Every immunization programme in the world has a national vaccination schedule that specifies the age at which antigens are to be given. But as we well know, in real life things rarely go according to plan! Inevitably, children and...

India has been taken off the polio endemic list. This short film, uploaded by the Gates Foundation, acknowledges the people in the field who made it possible. [youtube]FeuApCaX-o8&feature=plcp&context=C3d05e73UDOEgsToPDskKx3MV45kovP1M0bAtb6Hbj[/youtube] In a related article, T Jacob ...

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that the HPV vaccine be administered at 11 to 12 years of age in both boys and girls.I do not know the studies that show cost-benefit analysis of the vaccine in females, especially in a scenario when many countries are against this vaccine. The ...

Cross-posted from the January 2012 [i]Global Immunization News issue. Many thanks. [/i] 31/01/2012 from UNICEF Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CEECIS) The suggestion that I post this news came from Mojtaba Haghgou--the VSSM expert. Following the decision...

I agree with Mansoor, on many occasions vaccination alone cannot protect children well. Using India's experiences, improving water sanitation and its key messages in polio eradication, we all should use the opportunity of new vaccine introduction to communicate with the community about all preventiv...

Cross-posted from the January 2012 issue of GIN with thanks. 31/01/2012 from Madhav Balakrishnan, WHO HQ The Global Network for Post-marketing Surveillance (PMS) of Vaccines was established by WHO in early 2008 with a primary objective to monitor the safety of WHO prequalified vaccines supplied thr...

Cross-posted from the January 2012 GIN issue with thanks. 31/01/2012 from Philipp Lambach, WHO HQ An important part of post-licensure vaccine safety surveillance is to collect and analyse reports of Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI). Analysing multiple AEFI reports helps determine if ...

Cross-posted from the January 2012 Global Immunization News issue. Many thanks. 31/01/2012 from Osman Mansoor, UNICEF Pneumonia and diarrhoea remain the top two causes of child deaths. The availability of new vaccines against the top causes of pneumonia (Hib, PCV) and diarrhoea (RV) in children...

Cross posted from http://www.childsurvival.net with many thanks to Robert Davis NOTE FROM ROBERT DAVIS INVITING CONTRIBUTIONS The Expanded Programme on Immunization, now the world's largest public health programme, is approaching its fortieth birthday. It got started in a small suite of offi...

Here is a summary of interventions made by country delegations during the GVAP discussion at the WHO Executive Board on 21 January. - A number of delegations mentioned the importance of including measles elimination as part of the GVAP (there was some discussion as to whether it should be eradi...

Courtesy: Carin Hall (http://www.energydigital.com) Inspired by the global need for the storage of vaccines, Adam Grosser describes a project in progress to supply inexpensive refrigeration that doesn't require electricity, propane, gas, kerosene or consumables. Using an historical concept of int...

While immunization partners involved in supporting vaccine supply chain (WHO, UNICEF’s CCL and Project Optimize ...) are collaborating and building on each others’ experiences, there are several pertinent questions to the field yet to be addressed: 1. Questions related to standby generators: Alt...

In North Africa, temperatures can range from 43 deg C in summer to near freezing during the winter. Is this a hot, temperate or moderate zone? Perhaps it would be most beneficial for the purchaser to know at what temperature range the refrigerators will provide proper storage conditions. For example...

by Patrick Lydon, World Health Organization; Chutima Suraratdecha, PATH; Michelle Arnot, Western Cape Department of Health; Ticky Raubenheimer, Collaborative Centre for Cold Chain Management; Arthorn Riewpaiboon, Mahidol University; and Cha-oncin Sooksriwong, Mahidol University In recent years, ...

by Juanita Folmsbee, SCMS and Hai Le, PATH While project Optimize seeks innovative supply chain solutions for vaccines, it often finds those solutions already being implemented in other supply chain systems. In this article, we explore a success story from the Supply Chain Management System (SCM...

by Alan Hinman, Task Force for Global Health; Majeed Siddiqi, HealthNet TPO Afghanistan; and Amy Dietterich, IFRC While Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have long played critical roles in supporting immunization services at national and global levels, their role in the GAVI Alliance expanded j...

by Ruth Simmons, ExpandNet Secretariat; Peter Fajans, RHR/WHO and ExpandNet Secretariat; and Suzanne Reier RHR/WHO and ExpandNet Over the next 12 months, project Optimize will be collecting final data from its demonstration projects and transitioning management of these projects to government pa...

by Osman Mansoor and Kate Bai, UNICEF; Andrew Garnett, Consultant; and Solo Kone, WHO In December 2011, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) hosted a workshop in New York for the Cold Chain and Logistics (CCL) Taskforce. The main focus of the workshop was to review the Effective Vaccine Man...

MCHIP is USAID funded project working on immunization, Family planning and new born care in India. One of the activities of MCHIP is to work with the district authorities to improve immunization program management. In this context, MCHIP has developed a demo site in health facilities in Districts of...