EYE Newsletter June 2020

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Date: 25 June 2020
 
Yellow Fever Situation in the Americas
In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, Brazil has maintained vaccination against yellow fever (YF) in areas with virus circulation. The media has played a fundamental role in the dissemination of alerts and vaccine recommendations to the population, favoring adherence to protective measures for the community and for health care workers¹. During the 2019-2020 monitoring period in Brazil, 881 suspected human cases were reported (of which 47 remain under investigation), with confirmation of 18 cases and 3 deaths. Most cases being unvaccinated working-age males.

In 2020, Peru has reported 12 probable cases with no confirmed case so far. Colombia and Bolivia postponed their YF campaigns due to the pandemic. The Pan American Health Organization’s (PAHO) Immunization guidelines, highlighted the importance of maintaining YF vaccination as an essential service in endemic countries in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

PAHO, through its national Office in Brazil received a donation of 5 million doses of YF vaccine to support priority countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). (see picture above).

¹ Epi Bulletin Volume No. 51, June 2020, Ministry of Health Brazil
 
Infection Prevention and Control for Immunization During COVID-19
WHO and Sabin Vaccine Institute’s Boost Community, in partnership with TechNet-21 and The Geneva Learning Foundation, conducted a webinar on how WHO Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) recommendations for COVID-19 can be operationalized in the context of immunization. The presenters described the importance for health workers to conduct risk assessment prior to any vaccination activity. The objective of the risk assessment is to assess and analyze the potential for exposure to COVID-19 and to determine the use of personal protective equipment (PPE). Read more here.

A recording of the session is available here, along with the presentation shared (soon to be translated in French and Spanish). Links therein are provided to WHO IPC technical guidance documents and online training options.
 
Updates on Planned YF Campaigns in Africa
Ghana established 23-29 September as the new tentative dates for the postponed Preventive Mass Vaccination Campaign (PMVC). This campaign will mark completion of nationwide protection.
 
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) plans to implement its postponed PMVCs in November. Active coordination and planning is underway, and microplanning tools have been finalized.

Nigeria plans to implement its postponed campaign in Anambra targeting approximately 5.2 million persons as well as the accelerated 2020 PMVCs in Q4 2020 and Q1 2021 targeting approximately 31.4 million persons. The postponed campaign in Anambra will be a dual antigen campaign with MenA for eligible age cohorts, a first for YF vaccination in Nigeria.

Sudan has submitted an exceptional application to Gavi for YF catch-up activities to ensure that all children in the country have access to protection against YF. If the application is approved, the country aims to initiate catch-up vaccination activities as soon as feasible to do so.
 
Ethiopia and Uganda are yet to define new dates for their delayed reactive vaccination campaigns. WHO AFRO is actively supporting countries to ensure necessary adaptations for the COVID-19 context and safe implementation as soon as possible to control the risk of onward spread.
 
Programme Synergies with EYE
Streamlined international transport of samples: The international samples transport system developed by the EYE programme’s operational arm (EYE Ops) has successfully supported activities of other programmes such as Polio and COVID-19 response  to enable timely and rapid international sample transport operations. For example, in Ethiopia, Polio and COVID-19 samples were shipped to the WHO Polio regional referral laboratory, National Institute For Communicable Diseases (NICD) in South Africa within 24 hours. This represents a substantive achievement in the current context of COVID-19 related reduction in shipping options, airport closures and prolonged clearance processes.

Development of a new YF ICG request package. In collaboration with the EYE Secretariat, WHO AFRO and country offices, the International Coordinating Group (ICG) on Vaccine Provision has developed a new ICG request package. The package contains a new ICG request form, annexes, guidelines, FAQs, and a newly designed YF vaccination card. This new user-friendly package is aimed at enabling countries prepare the detailed information required to submit timely quality applications to the ICG. This is anticipated to help ensure rapid decision-making by ICG and enable timely implementation of reactive campaigns to reduce morbidity and mortality resulting from YF outbreaks. It will soon be available from the ICG Secretariat’s webpage for countries to access and use.
 
Gavi YF Diagnostic Procurement Support
Twenty African countries at high risk for YF epidemics received official notification of their approval for Gavi YF diagnostic procurement support, including YF serology reagents, consumable supplies, and equipment. Despite current challenges due to COVID-19, UNICEF and WHO are working to facilitate shipment of supplies to these countries as well as to countries not eligible for Gavi support (such as Angola) to ensure suspect YF cases routinely undergo YF serological (IgM) testing at country level.
 
Guidance to Support Immunization in the COVID-19 Context
To enable continuation of essential services such as YF immunization and control activities during the COVID-19 pandemic, WHO and partners are developing and publishing country and technical guidance documents. Most of the published documents are available through the WHO publications hub.

Highlights of documents published, updated or translated in June include:

Emergency Global Supply Chain System (COVID-19) catalogue, which lists all medical devices, including personal protective equipment, medical equipment, medical consumables, single use devices, laboratory and test-related devices that may be requested through the COVID-19 Supply Portal.

Maintaining essential health services: operational guidance for the COVID-19 context, which contains Immunization specific content on pages 44-45. The document is currently available in English;  translation is in process into all 6 UN languages and will be posted shortly.

The Framework for decision-making: implementation of mass vaccination campaigns in the context of COVID-19, is now available in all 6 UN languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish).
 
Upcoming Events
  • Gavi application round 3 submission due date, 8 September
  • Virtual ICG Partners meeting, 23-24 September (2-5pm GVA time)
  • Virtual EYE Annual Meetings
    • 9,10 November, Laboratory Technical Working Group (LTWG)
    • 12 November, Supply and Demand Working Group (SDWG)
    • 19 November, EYE Partners meeting
    • 24 November, Vaccine Delivery Working Group (VDWG)
    • 1 December, Risk Analysis Prioritization Working Group (RAWG)
 

110 million people

Protected against yellow fever in Africa since EYE inception.
 
We are all partners. We all have a role to play.
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