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Editorial Note
Highlights of this issue include a proposal request from WHO for TechNet21, followed by the Optimize posts. Further, Michel Zaffran responds to the contribution on sugar galssification technology, placing things in perspective.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) is soliciting requests for proposals for the ongoing management of the TechNet21 electronic forum and website.
... the successful bidder must demonstrate website design expertise, an understanding of the role of TechNet21 as well as a sense of its future potential. Previous experience in creating and moderating web forums and/or other social networking sites would be an asset.
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Since 2005, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) has increasingly used monovalent oral polio vaccines (OPVs) in the fight against the two wild poliovirus strains still in circulation (wild poliovirus types 1 and 3 [WPV1 and WPV3]). These vaccines have up to three times the efficacy of the traditionally used trivalent OPV... .
To complement the large-scale use of monovalent OPVs, a new bivalent OPV has now been developed. This new vaccine is poised to accelerate progress towards a polio-free world as it simultaneously targets both WPV1 and WPV3 in one dose, ....
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In 2006, the Government of Japan offered funding to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to help countries prevent and prepare for future influenza pandemics. Recognizing that support from cold chain and logistics (CCL) systems would be vital for any vaccine response, US$8 million of this grant was used ... to strengthen CCL systems ...
UNICEF selected two consultants to review the impact of the grant ... with a specific focus on two pieces of new technology that can help CCL system performance: the Fridge-tag and the SolarChill refrigerator.
[Read more]
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In November 2009, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) hosted a workshop of the Cold Chain and Logistics (CCL) Taskforce. The purpose of the workshop was to reach consensus on the approach and key actions needed to support the strengthening and expansion of CCL systems...
The CCL Taskforce created four interagency subgroups to address these challenges directly: (1) guidance, (2) monitoring, (3) advocacy, and (4) integration.
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Vision: By 2025, state-of-the-art supply systems meet the changing needs of a changing world.
Objective: To enable the right vaccines to be in the right place, at the right time, in the right quantities, in the right condition, at the right cost. Specific steps to achieve this objective are listed below:
- Vaccine products and their packaging are designed with characteristics that best suit the operational needs of countries while ensuring that the highest standards of safety are maintained.
- Vaccine distribution systems are streamlined for maximum efficiency and are built around mechanisms that support continuous learning to improve system performance.
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The Accelerated Vaccine Introduction (AVI) initiative will see the first wave of pneumococcal vaccines entering up to 15 GAVI Alliance-approved countries in 2010. Another 11 countries are expected to follow suit in the next year. While some countries already have cold chain capacity for the new vaccine, independent assessments have revealed that some countries do not yet have capacity at all levels, and their introduction schedule could be delayed until they are ready.
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A new era of immunization supply systems officially got under way on Friday, January 22, 2010, in Tunis, when the Ministry of Public Health, the World Health Organization (WHO), and Project Optimize formally signed a cooperative agreement. The three-year project, with a budget of US$1.75 million, will focus on five key intervention areas:
- Demonstrate the benefits of streamlining and integrating the supply chains for vaccines, drugs, and other temperature-sensitive products between national and regional levels.
- Demonstrate the benefits of a "Zero Energy Cost Supply Chain" below the regional level by using solar energy to generate and feed into the grid the equivalent amount of the energy required for warehousing and transportation (using electric vehicles).
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While I personally believe that any progress towards more stable vaccines is great news and takes us in a very good direction I would like to make a few comments that may give some perspective to the "discovery" announced by the Oxford University.
1) The first efforts to stabilize vaccines in sugar started in the late 1980's and early 1990's. Financial constraints and then legal fights around sugar-glassification technology IP issues have prevented these discoveries from having any substantial impact so far. ... [Michel Zaffran]
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