The HR Country Support Package for Immunization SC Managers is available!

The success of immunization systems in countries through the past decades can be attributed to a large extent, to the supply chain and logistics system. This system is one of the backbones of national immunization programmes (EPI) that strives to ensure the uninterrupted availability of quality vaccines and devices, from the national level through to the service delivery points in rural and r...

Dear all, Did you know that there is a dedicated subsite on Immunization Supply Chain (iSC) strengthening on TechNet-21? In 2014, the Gavi Alliance partners developed the Gavi Immunization Supply Chains (iSC) Strategy around strengthening country immunization  supply chains, focusing on five fundamentals: Data for Management; System Design; Leadership; Cold Chain Equipment; and Continuous Improvement Plans.  The iSC subsite houses information, tools, and resources that can hel...

Dear members, You may remember an announcement in May 2018 when ThinkWell launched a set of products on the Immunization Economics platform (immunizationeconomics.org/ICAN) on immunization delivery costs. Our launch included findings from a systematic review of delivery costs of immunization programs in low- and middle-income countries, including a unit cost database (Immunization Delivery Cost Catalogue – the IDCC) and summary repor...

Dear Colleagues, You are invited to contribute to a new discussion on 'When should Ministries of Health use refrigerated vehicle to deliver vaccines?'. Discussion co-moderated by James Cheyne and John Lloyd: There are at least four good reasons for using refrigerated vehicles to replace the classic pickup trucks loaded with cold boxes: The number of vaccines used in national immunization programmes has roughly doubled over the past 20 years and the number of new...

Dear Colleagues,

The 14th Batch of the Post Graduate Diploma Course in Global Health Procurement and Supply Chain Management is scheduled to launch in September 2018. This is an 11-month ONLINE program wherein there are 9 modules. The course is structured to address one topic area per month for 8 months, starting with a module on introduction to PSM and ending with PSM support functions and systems. Each module is supported by Assignments, MCQ's and Assessments. Th...

Dear immunization and health supply chain professionals,

The Effective Vaccine Management (EVM) initiative has evolved significantly from being solely associated with an assessment tool. It has been transformed to help national programmes make major health systems strengthening investments work as intended – to address the underlying systemic bottlenecks to immunization supply chain performance.

In this context, I am pleased to share with you the WHO and UNICEF contin...

Finding the Perfect Temperature: Protecting Lifesaving Vaccines in Remote Areas
Immunization is one of the most successful and cost-effective public health interventions in history, saving 2-3 million lives every year. In Tanzania, JSI is installing remote temperature monitoring devices to strengthen the immunization cold chain and ensure that vaccines make it to the last mile. 

Dear TechNet-21 community, You may have heard about National Logistics Working Groups - either because your country has one or wants to have one, or because you came across this concept in your daily job.  A national logistics working group (NLWG) is a mechanism for coordinating national immunization supply chain and logistics activities, as well as investments made by government agencies and development partners. NLWGs have been instrumental in improving the performance of su...

Dear Colleagues, The agenda of the ‘International Workshop in Ensuring Product Quality in Procurement and Supply Chain Management’ was to present face-to-face opportunity to the participants from National Medical Supplies Fund (NMSF), Federal Ministry of Health, Sudan in gaining a comprehensive understanding of concepts of Quality Assurance (QA) of pharmaceutical products and processes in procurement and supply chain. The workshop was held in Al-Fateh Idris Hall in the Abdul H...

As a relative newcomer to the EPI supply chain world, but not to healthcare supply chain I have always struggled with some of the terminology. One term in particular bugs me. And not just because I can be a bit pedantic but because its genuninely confusing: the term "inventory management" when used in EPI Supply Chain terminology. Now I always understood inventory to be something you or your organization/value chain/supply chain worked on, added value to, to ultimately resell ...

ThinkWell is currently accepting submissions of GREY LITERATURE about immunization delivery costs in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Resources need to be published between January 2005 and January 2018. Please upload your submissions directly to https://collaborativedev.egnyte.com/ul/pbf7fBiKXV. Submitted resources will be considered as part of a systematic review of the current evidence base on immunization del...

Dear viewers We wish to share the attached revised version vaccine storage code in the new model of Ice Lined Refrigerator, supplied recently to the planning units in Karnataka and India. Karnataka is going to practice soon and we hope the whole country may also follow the same as it is practicable. Keeping ice-packs in brick style practically feasible way is also demonstrated.   With best regards Holla n team KVG Medical College...

Dear Colleagues, PSA is pleased to share the new issue of “Health & Humanitarian – the supply chain review” magazine. In this issue, read about: Vaccine Distribution in DRC by VillageReach The professional career of Joanie Robertson, PATH The Yeksi Naa Project from Senegal by Modibo Dicko Procurement reforms by SAMES in Timor-Leste and more… Access your free copy here: https://goo.gl/bxxign  

The World Health Organization Global Routine Immunization Strategies and Practices (GRISP) course team invites you to join our digital (online) Commencement Event to recognize the work and celebrate the achievement of the WHO GRISP Scholars Date: 12 December 2017 Time: 14h00 (2 PM) UTC+1 Geneva (check time) Registration: https://attendee.gototraining.com/r/684580...

Here is a link to an interesting article that a colleague sent me: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2017/11/28/tens-thousands-dying-from-30b-fake-drugs-trade-who-says.html Basically, it reports on a study of the (potential) extent of damage from fake, adulterated or expired vaccines.  My question is more specifically whether someone has studied similar effects of losses in ...

Dear TechNet-21 Members, Please join OpenLMIS on November 30th at 8 AM PST/ 5 PM CET/ 7 PM EAT for a webinar presenting details on the current roadmap and latest developments in the OpenLMIS v3 vaccine module. This webinar will serve as a refresher for those involved with the development of the vaccine module and a presentation of the roadmap and recently developed features for those interested in learning more about how OpenLMIS manages vaccines. Please register in ad...

Good day...i'm planning to use EVM as one of my tools to acess the vaccine management in my country in few selected primary health care centers in remote areas. Clearly my country is not using this model....is it advisable for personal research use? Im quite attracted to the scopes that the survey covers, its comprehensive. ...

PATH is pleased to present “Building Next Generation Immunization Supply Chains” a special edition of Vaccine journal which brings together evidence from global experts in 31 articles representing decades of work by country governments, implementing partners, and donors to improve immunization supply chains (iSC). The articles address the impact of iSC on vaccine coverage, current challenges, and successful pilots, prom...

Attached is anewflyer that lists all the online courses available as part of the Immunization eLearning Initiative. This digital learning program wasdeveloped by WHO and UNICEF expertstoprovide knowledge vital toEPI advancement.Everyone working in support of Immunization can participate in the online courses, including staff, SSAs, consultants, partner organizations,MoH, and other interested audiences.Theflyer providesaccess information, including log-in instructions. Some quick facts about t...

WHO and UNICEF announce the availability of Immunization eLearning Initiative courses to all consultants, partners, and staff supporting immunization.
The course series provides training in areas considered vital to EPI advancement. It will help immunization professionals to align their knowledge and get up-to-date on the latest immunization systems and protocols. The courses are highly engaging and flexible. They can be taken in any order and learners can start and stop without l...

Hello All,
In the website for WHO PQ vaccines BCG and Yellow Fever are the two vaccines which have multi dose preparations packaged in ampoules. As soon as we open a mulit-dose ampoule and administer the first dose, we are leaving the remining doses in the ampoule exposed to environment (very often the not so clean undersurface of the vaccine carrier as the opened ampoule is kept in a slit in the top sponge and the VC closed).
Grateful if someone can enlighten me about...

Over the last two decades, increased investments in health have yieldedsignificant gains in health outcomesfor tens of millions of people around the world. At the same time, economic growth has raised hundreds of millions out of extreme poverty and helped fuel a vast expansion in information technology that has revolutionized the way people communicate. Inspired by the 20th anniversary of the first World Development Report to ...

Greetings TechNet Community, I hope this message finds each of you well and successful in your work. I am the new OpenLMIS Community Manager working with the OpenLMIS Initiativeand Community to develop and share this functional and customizable eLMIS solution. Many of you may be familiar with the open source eLMIS system, OpenLMIS.Currently utilized in five geographies throughout Africa, OpenLMIS is acost-effective and widely customizable eLMIS solution built to address...

Dear Colleagues: We are pleased to circulate the 2nd Global Analysis of Effective Vaccine Management (EVM), 2009-2014. To date, 82 countries have conducted EVM assessments between 2009-2014, of which 26 countries have conducted the assessment twice. The slide deck follows the same format as the 1st Global Analysis and provides analysis organised by: EVM composite score EVM criterion scores (including by WHO Region) Context ...

Earlier this month, the Dose Per Container Partnership (DPCP) project was launched. This Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation project is implemented by JSI and partners (PATH, Agence de Médecine Préventive (AMP), Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), HERMES modelling team and the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC) / Johns Hopkins University). The project will help identify evidence needed to support better-informed decision making related to the trade-offs between cost and hea...

Reposted from JSI's The Pump Jeff Sanderson,Senior Technical Advisor African immunization supply chains need to be transformed. Between 2010 and 2020, new vaccine introductions will quadruple the volume of vaccines per immunized child. The number of vaccine doses that health workers will administer is increasing six-fold. Evidence from

Dear Technet Members, In February, Pamela Steele Associates (PSA) and Dr Andrew Brown will be drawing on their extensive experience in the health and humanitarian sector to deliver three popular training courses in Dubai, U.A.E: i. HEALTH SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT (14th – 18th Feb 2016) ii.

Recently, I was sitting with the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) Manager, his senior staff, and technical assistance (TA) partners in an African country, discussing support for better visibility and analysis of immunization supply chain data. The EPI Manager was willing to listen, but wasn’t sure his team needed help in data analysis. As for visibility, that was already being addressed: they using a web-based inventory management system that, among other things, providecold chain vol...

The Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on immunization (SAGE) convened by WHO on 20 October 2015 has confirmed that the globally coordinated withdrawal of the type 2 component in the oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) will take place in April 2016. SAGE’s landmark decision follows the endorsement by the World Health Assembly (WHA) in May 2015, when Ministers of Health from 194 member states adopted a resolution on the global effort to eradicate polio, as part of the Polio Endgame Strategy...

WHO recommends 2 temperature ranges for keeping all vaccines at health facilities (+2C +8C) and (-15C -25C) for OPV above district level. The rationale for using first range is explained in “Thermostability of vaccines”. What is the reason for use of second range (-15C -25C) for OPV and some freeze-dried vaccines? Could (-5C -15C) or (-10C -20C) or other T range work instead?...