Tools

The Common assessment tool for immunization services (CAT)

Cold chain planning tool

Making a comprehensive Multi-Year Plan for Immunization - WHO-UNICEF cMYP Guidelines and Tools (2005)

Immunization Costing & Financing: A Tool and User Guide for comprehensive Multi-Year Planning (cMYP) (WHO, 2006)

Guidelines for preparing a Financial Sustainability Plan (FSP) for a national immunization programme (GAVI, 2004)

Financial Sustainability Diagnostic Tool for a national immunization programme (WHO, 2004)

AIM e-Learning (CVP, 2004)

Immunization essentials: a practical field guide (USAID, 2004)

Vaccine Management assessment tool

List of acronyms

Dictionary of immunization terms

CCEM (Cold Chain Equipment Maintenance)

Expert Database

Are you an expert in immunization, cold chain, waste management, virology? Are you looking for one? This is the place to register yourself as a resource or to find the people who can answer your questions or provide you with the services that you need to strengthen your immunization program(s).

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Job Announcements

This is the latest list of jobs available in the technet community. If you want to post a job, please request an addition here.

National Immunization Data - EPI Summaries

• Australia
• Brunei Darussalam
• Cambodia
• China
• Hong Kong SAR, China
• Japan
• Lao People's Democratic Republic
• Macao SAR, China
• Malaysia
• Mongolia
• New Zealand
• Papua New Guinea
• Philippines
• Republic of Korea
• Singapore
• Viet Nam

Research papers

Safety profile of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines: systematic review of pre- and post-licensure data.
(Bulletin World Health Organization: May 2008)

A 7-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide-protein conjugate vaccine (PCV7) was licensed in the United States of America in 2000, but no comprehensive postmarketing review of safety has been carried out. A systematic review of the safety of PCV7 and other pneumococcal conjugate vaccines was carried out. A total of 42 studies were included in the review.

Reactogenicity data from some randomized trials suggest that PCV7 may result in more local reactions and fever than certain comparison vaccines. However, the reactions were mild and self-limited, and PCV7 did not carry an increased risk of severe injection-site reactions or high fever. Some, although not all, of the randomized trials in children found that mild local and systemic reactions associated with PCV7 may increase with the number of doses, at least over the three-dose primary series. In addition, PCV7 and other pneumococcal conjugate vaccines were found to have tolerable reactogenicity in Native American and African populations and in medically high-risk groups for which pneumococcal vaccination is recommended. Two of the largest studies of PCVs, one involving PCV7 and the other, PCV9, found a statistically significant increased risk of hospitalization for reactive airway disease, including asthma. Another large trial of PCV9, however, did not find an increased risk of asthma.
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Ethics and infectious disease
Ross Upshur (WHO Bulletin: Volume 86, 2008)

Humans and pathogens share a long co-evolution, and infections have exerted a remarkable influence on the course of historical events and human societies. This has been abundantly well documented by historians. Yet somehow, infectious diseases have not attracted a great deal of attention from bioethicists.
This volume of essays is a welcome attempt to remedy that deficit.
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Effectiveness of BCG vaccination among leprosy contacts: a cohort study
N.C. Duppre, L.A.B. Camacho, S.S. da Cunha, C.J. Struchiner, A.M. Sales, J.A.C. Nery, E.N. Sarno (Trans Roy Soc Trop Med Hyg, 2008, Pages 631-638)

The study assessed the effectiveness of BCG vaccination against leprosy among the contacts of 1161 leprosy patients at the FIOCRUZ Leprosy Outpatient Clinic, RJ, Brazil, from June 1987 to December 2006. Following National Leprosy Program guidelines, the clinic has administered one-to-two doses to all healthy contacts since 1991. Among the 5680 contacts, 304 (5.4%) already had leprosy. Of the 5376 eligible healthy contacts, 3536 were vaccinated, 30 of whom were excluded due to previous or current tuberculosis, or HIV. In 18 years of follow up, 122 (2.15%) incident cases were diagnosed (58 vaccinated and 64 not), 28 occurring in the first year of follow up (21 vaccinated, 16 with no scar). The protection conferred by BCG was 56% and was not substantially affected by previous BCG vaccination (50% with a scar and 59% without). The risk of tuberculoid leprosy during the initial months was high among those vaccinated with no scar. However, it had substantially declined by the first year and in the following years, when the protection rate in this group reached 80%. Since Brazil is endemic for leprosy and the detection rate is not declining satisfactorily, vaccinating all contacts could be an effective means of substantially reducing the incidence of leprosy.
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Efficacy and safety of an oral live attenuated human rotavirus vaccine against rotavirus gastroenteritis during the first 2 years of life in Latin American infants: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase III study
(The Lancet: 5 April 2008: Alexandre C Linhares MD et al.)

Peak incidence of rotavirus gastroenteritis is seen in infants between 6 and 24 months of age. We therefore aimed to assess the 2-year efficacy and safety of an oral live attenuated human rotavirus vaccine for prevention of severe gastroenteritis in infants.
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Pre-clinical evaluation of a novel nanoemulsion-based hepatitis B mucosal vaccine.(PLoS ONE. Aug 2008)

Hepatitis B virus infection remains an important global health concern despite the availability of safe and effective prophylactic vaccines. Limitations to these vaccines include requirement for refrigeration and three immunizations thereby restricting use in the developing world. A new nasal hepatitis B vaccine composed of recombinant hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) in a novel nanoemulsion (NE) adjuvant (HBsAg-NE) could be effective with fewer administrations.
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Plant-Based Vaccines Against Diarrheal Diseases (2007)

Every year 1.6 million deaths occur due to diarrhea related to unsafe water and inadequate sanitation—the vast majority in children under 5 years old. Safe and effective vaccines against enteric infections could contribute to control of these diseases. However, purification of protective antigens for inclusion in vaccines using traditional expression systems is expensive and unattractive to vaccine manufacturers who see the vaccine market as economically uninviting. Cost is one of the persistent barriers to deployment of new vaccines to populations that need them most urgently.
Transgenic plant-derived vaccines offer a new strategy for development of safe, inexpensive vaccines against diarrheal diseases. In phase 1 clinical studies, these vaccines have been safe and immunogenic without the need for a buffer or vehicle other than the plant cell. This paper describes early clinical studies evaluating oral transgenic plant vaccines against enteric infections such as enterotoxigenic E. coli infection and norovirus.
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Intellectual Property and Public Health: An Overview of the Debate with a Focus on U.S. Policy - Working Paper 146 (12 June 2008)

The United States and other rich countries have substantially strengthened the patent protection for pharmaceutical products over the past fifteen years. In this working paper, Carsten Fink describes the global shift in intellectual property policies and employs economic analysis to evaluate its consequences for developing countries. He argues that the conflict between firms seeking to protect their patents and developing countries wanting to increase drug access will increase as more protected drugs enter developing markets and as the need for R&D increases. He offers several suggestions for rich-country policymakers to better balance incentives for innovation with the needs of the world's poor, who continue to suffer from diseases conquered in the rich world.
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2007 AIDS epidemic update

The 2007 AIDS epidemic update reports on the latest developments in the global AIDS epidemic. The 2007 edition provides the most recent estimates of the AIDS epidemic and explores new findings and trends in the epidemic’s evolution.
AIDS epidemic update 2007
Regional Summaries - 16 April 2008
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Major Issues and Challenges of Influenza Pandemic Preparedness in Developing Countries
(June 2008)

Hitoshi Oshitani,* Taro Kamigaki,* and Akira Suzuki* *Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan
Abstract Better preparedness for an influenza pandemic mitigates its impact. Many countries have started developing and implementing national influenza pandemic preparedness plans. However, the level of preparedness varies among countries. Developing countries encounter unique and difficult issues and challenges in preparing for a pandemic. Deaths attributable to an influenza pandemic could be substantially higher in developing countries than in industrialized countries. Pharmaceutical interventions such as vaccines and antiviral agents are less likely to be available in developing countries. The public health and clinical infrastructure of developing countries are often inadequate to deal with a widespread health crisis such as an influenza pandemic. Such an event will inevitably have a global effect. Therefore, improving pandemic preparedness in every country, particularly developing ones, is urgently needed.

A recent WHO report estimated that the worldwide vaccine production capacity for current influenza vaccines is 350 million doses per year (12). That level of production is clearly insufficient to supply vaccines to all countries. Only a limited number of vaccine doses would be available, particularly in the early stages of the pandemic, and most of them would likely be supplied to industrialized countries. Many countries, especially developing countries, will be forced to confront the next pandemic with few or no available vaccines.
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Malaria prevention in schools reduces anaemia and improves educational potential in school children (Lancet, 12 July 2008)

IPT of malaria improves the health and cognitive ability of semi-immune schoolchildren. Effective malaria interventions could be a valuable addition to school health programmes.
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Researchers crack final part of the immune system code (PLOS July 2008)

A group of researchers at the Technical University of Denmark and the University of Copenhagen have developed models of neural networks that make it possible to simulate how the body protects itself from disease and predict the immune system's access codes.
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Progress Toward Interruption of Wild Poliovirus Transmission --- Worldwide January 2007--April 2008 (WHO)

In 1988, the World Health Assembly resolved to eradicate poliomyelitis. Subsequently, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative reduced the global incidence of polio associated with wild polioviruses (WPVs) from an estimated 350,000 cases in 1988 to 1,997 reported cases in 2006 and reduced the number of countries that have never succeeded in interrupting WPV transmission from 125 to four (Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan) (1--4). Type 2 WPV (WPV2) circulation was last observed in October 1999 (5).
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An interview with Julian Lob-Levyt: Vaccines for the poor (WHO Bulletin—June2008)

Dr Julian Lob-Levyt is the executive secretary and chief executive officer of GAVI Alliance and president of the GAVI Fund.
Q: Why fund vaccines?
A: Good health is a first step to building just and sustainable societies and economies, and vaccines are a highly cost-effective way to do that. Of the nearly 10 million children who die each year before reaching their fifth birthday, WHO (World Health Organization) estimates that 2.5 million die from diseases that could be prevented with currently available or new vaccines. Vaccination allows the global health community to make a real difference.
Q: How reliable are the figures on immunization successes, such as measles in Africa? Isn’t there pressure from advocacy groups to inflate these figures to make a stronger case for more donor funding?
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Understandings of immunization: some west African perspectives
Melissa Leach a, James Fairhead b
(WHO Bulletin—June 2008)

In 2001, a school teacher in Gueckedou, on Guinea’s border with Liberia, saw rebel forces including child soldiers destroy his town. Reflecting a few years later on the childhood immunization programmes that are now well established in the region, he worried that they might be creating a new generation of children – strengthened, but more violent.
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Books

Tuberculosis and Air Travel. Third Edition (Eurosurveillance, 05 June 2008)
The emergence of MDdR-TB and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDdR-TB) has raised special concerns in relation to the international spread of particularly dangerous strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Since the 2006 edition was published, several incidents have occurred involving air travel and potential transmission of TB.
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World Health Statistics 2008
This annual edition presents the most recent statistics since 1990 of over 80 health indicators for WHO's 193 Member States. This fourth edition includes an expanded set of over 76 key indicators and a section with 10 highlights in global health statistics in the past year.
This book has been collated from publications and databases of WHO's technical programmes and regional offices. The core set of indicators was selected on the basis of relevance for global health, availability and quality of data, and accuracy and comparability of estimates.
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The State of Africas Children 2008
The State of Africa’s Children 2008 is a regional edition of UNICEF’s The State of the World’s Children 2008 report. Complementary to the global report, it examines the state of child survival in Africa and highlights the need to position child health at the heart of the region’s development and human rights agenda. It also outlines possible solutions – programmes, policies and partnerships – to accelerate progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals.
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