POST 00445E : IMPACT OF VACCINE VIAL MONITORS (VVM) ON THE USE and DELIVERY OF MEASLES VACCINE

POST 00445E : IMPACT OF VACCINE VIAL MONITORS (VVM) ON THE USE and DELIVERY OF MEASLES VACCINE Follow-up on Posts 00433E, 00441E and 00444E 12 April 2002 ______________________________________________________________________________________ Dr. Nguyen Van Cuong, Vietnam National EPI Secretary General, shares with us preliminary results of the study on the impact of VVMs on the use and distribution of measles vaccine. ______________________________________________________________________________________ I would like to share some results from the preliminary assessment of the study on the impact of VVMs on the use and distribution of measles vaccine in a campaign setting in Vietnam. Firstly, I would like to thank the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for its support of measles campaigns in Vietnam, especially for the inclusion of VVMs in their tender, and to Chiron Italy who responded positively with providing measles vaccine with attached VVMs. I would also like to thank the World Health Organization and UNICEF for their support in the campaign and particularly in documenting this important experience. Experience in using OPV with VVMs during national and sub-national immunization days in Vietnam is limited to Phu Tho province in 1997. Vietnam has been using locally-produced vaccines for its immunization activities. In this regard, our experience with VVMs attached to measles vaccine should be considered quite new and unique since it was the first exposure to VVMs for many health workers. During the last week, the Ministry of Health together with representatives from the WHO Vietnam and Headquarters and UNICEF/Vietnam have visited both control and study sites in the field, analyzing the data and interviewing health workers. I must say that VVMs are very welcomed by all health workers who used them in the study site. They have been trained before the campaign on the use of VVMs as well as on injection safety and organization of the campaign. We also managed to reach hard-to-reach communes where the cold chain is very weak and/or does not exist mainly relying on VVM's potential. This resulted in reducing the number of supply trips and consequently the cost. VVM's availability also helped us to prevent injecting heat-damaged vaccines to our children. Health workers are very confident with VVMs and now demanding that we should have them on all vaccines. I would like to give some examples of how they evaluated VVMs in their own words: "Now I can decide which ones to discard because they became ineffective due to heat exposure. Before this was not possible." "Very good tool to decide which vaccine vial you have to use first." "Vaccines with VVMs are much better than without. I feel more confident with what I have in my hand now." "Now, I know the information on heat exposure of each single vial." "Very easy to recognize what has happened to the vaccine before it reached my health centre." "VVM is a very good tool for better managing your vaccines." "New ways of storing vaccines is now possible." "VVM helps me to understand whether there is a cold chain problem." "I believe in it." "It helps me reduce vaccine wastage due to heat exposure." "Look, it is on top of the vial, you cannot miss it during reconstitution practice. You got to look at it first." We are now in the process of analyzing the move of 55,200 doses of measles vaccine with VVMs and 70,620 doses of measles vaccine without VVMs from the primary store down to commune level. I am hoping to finalize the analysis within acouple of weeks and will be happy to share the final results with you all. Thank you for all the interest you have shown in our activity. Dr. Nguyen Van Cuong National EPI Secretary General Hanoi, Vietnam ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- CONTRIBUTIONS: Contributions to: or use your reply button! The TechNet21 e-Forum welcomes new subscribers who are involved in immunization services. SUBCRIBE: To subscribe, send an e-mail to: Leave the SUBJECT area BLANK, do not type anything. In the body text, just write: Subscribe TECHNET21E Surname Name Do not use any accents in your name and surname. UNSUBSCRIBE: To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to: Leave the SUBJECT area BLANK, do not type anything. 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