A new release of ICE (v1.8.1.0) is now available. (Download ICE v 1.8.2.0) The release includes the following changes: Updates to the Polio Vaccine Group and the Meningococcal ACWY Vaccine Group to better reflect latest guidelines, and addition of Influenza vaccine (CVX 185) to the Influenza Vaccine Group. Combines PCV and PPSV vaccine groups into one, new vaccine group for Pneumococcal. This change was made to better account for shots administered across the patient's lifetime. (To support this new Pneumococcal vaccine group, implementers may need to make adjustments to stop looking for the old PCV and PPSV vaccine group codes (700 and 720), and start looking for the new vaccine group code (750). Child and adult pneumococcal vaccinations are now evaluated and forecast under this new vaccine group. The PCV and PPSV vaccine groups are no longer supported.) Release notes which describe the above changes to the vaccine group logic in more detail. Implementers should refer to the new ICE Implementation Guide (v2r15) when making adjustments to be compatible with this latest release, including the new Pneumococcal vaccine group as well as a few other vaccine and evaluation reason codes that have been added. (A "track changes" version of the guide is also available to make it easy to see what has changed since the last release.) You can determine which release of ICE you are using by viewing the README.HISTORY file that is included with each distribution. Please feel free to e-mail us at ice@hln.com if you have any questions.

This post by Erin Sparrow, World Health Organization, has been reposted from the January 2016 issue ofGlobal Immunization News with thanks. The Global Action Plan for Influenza Vaccines (GAP) was launched in 2006 as a ten year initiative to address the anticipated shortfall in vaccine supply in the event of an influenza pandemic. GAP aims to reduce the global shortage of influenza vaccines for seasonal epidemics and pandemics through three key objectives: • Objective 1: Increase in the evidence-based use of vaccines to protect against seasonal influenza
• Objective 2: Increase in vaccine production and regulatory capacity
• Objective 3: Research and development in influenza vaccines

A consultation in November 2016 will mark the end of the ten years of GAP. Over these years, much progress has been made in each of the three GAP objectives outlined above, however key gaps also remain. WHO is issuing this questionnaire to solicit feedback on the progress made to date and remaining gaps, which will feed into the development of the agenda for the final GAP consultation.

The questionnaire should take approximately 20 minutes to complete. The majority of the questions included in the survey are general influenza-related questions and can be answered even if you are not familiar with GAP. The survey will close on 29 February 2016. All responses will be treated in confidence and aggregated in anonymized formats.

Dear Tech Net Colleagues, The Pandemic Influenza Preparedness (PIP) Framework promotes the development of systems and information specific to responding to public health influenza emergencies. Based on lessons learned from the WHO H1N1 response and other gap analyses, a series of objectives have been identified that cut across technical areas of WHO. One of the four overarching objectives of the PIP is to ensure that deployment and regulatory systems are developed as a common approach that would ultimately be used by all agencies responding to an influenza pandemic, including UN agencies, industry, civil society, financial support mechanisms and country governments. A simulation tool to support planning and allocations of influenza vaccines during a pandemic has been developed and a prototype will be presented at the Innovations Café, during the Tech Net in Bangkok. The idea of the tool is to be able to run a simulation once per year in order to improve stakeholder response for the deployment of influenza vaccines during a pandemic. The WHO team involved in the development of that tool will be present at the Innovation Café and would welcome your feedback on it. The tool, called “PIPDEPLOY”, has an interface dedicated to each stakeholder. This is a unique opportunity to test the tool and provide comments in order to improve your interface dashboard. This will therefore contribute to the development of the final version. We invite you to interact with us at any time during the week. Longer sessions could also be arranged to provide further information on the functionality of the tool. This is a unified approach to enable better response to pandemics and to improve WHO support to countries. Your feedback is valuable to us! Chers collègues Tech Net -21, Dans le cadre du programme PIP, l’OMS est en train de développer un outil de planification pour l’allocation et ledéploiement des vaccins de la grippe en cas de pandémie. Un tel outil a été une des recommandations faites par les partenaires après la pandémie de 2009-2010. Cet outil prioritairement développé dans le but de préparer les pays à répondre à ce type d’urgence afin que la réponse globale soit coordonnée. L’OMS envisage de lancer une simulation par année pour tenir les pays en alerte et identifier les failles dans le système. La première simulation devait avoir lieu en fin d’année 2015. L’outil comprend trois interfaces, les industriels pharmaceutiques (fabricants de vaccins), l’OMS et les pays éligibles qui recevront les vaccins. Un prototype a été développé que nous avons présenté à Genève au siège de l’OMS le 16 avril 2015 au "Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Advisory Groupmeeting"afin de revoir les commentairesprincipalement des industriels pharmaceutiques présents. Nous aimerions saisir l’opportunité, au TechNet-21 Meeting de Bangkok, de recevoir les commentaires des pays et partenaires présents. Nous présenterons le prototype dans le cadre du café des innovations et nous pourrons également organiser des démonstrations plus poussées par petits groupes. Votre feedback sur cet outil est primordial pour développer une version le plus aboutie possible et qui intègre les réels besoins des pays. En espérant vous rencontrez et pouvoir échanger sur le sujet avec vous, N’hésitez pas à nous contacter à l’avance si vous désirez de plus amples renseignements sur le projet ou fixer un rendez-vous durant le meeting ! WHO team HEDMAN, Ms Lisa, technical officer, WHO HQ/PAU Policy, Access and Use (hedmanl@who.int) PIEVAROLI, Ms Liliana Marcela, Project manager WHO HQ/BSS Business Solution Services LAROCHE, Ms Sophie, technical Officer, WHO HQ/PAU Policy, Access and Use (laroches@who.int)