PIVI Newsletter
Vaccination of Health Workers In Vietnam with Seasonal Influenza Vaccine
Between January and May of 2017, the Ministry of Health of Vietnam (MOHV), with financial and technical support from PIVI and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), successfully vaccinated nearly 11,000 healthcare workers with seasonal influenza vaccine in 29 healthcare facilities throughout the country. The vaccine was supported by the Influenza Division, CDC through a cooperative agreement with MOHV. Following the vaccination campaign, a survey of randomly selected healthcare workers in 13 of the 29 healthcare facilities showed that a vaccination program of this type was well-received. In addition, monitoring following immunization showed that there were no severe adverse events following vaccination. MOHV, with the support of PIVI and CDC, plan to expand the immunization of healthcare workers in the coming years, with the goals of decreasing illness and death, and strengthening Vietnam’s pandemic preparedness.
Healthcare workers with personal experience receiving influenza vaccine will be true leaders in helping to increase the use of seasonal influenza vaccine as part of the MOHV immunization program – helping to keep more citizens healthy from influenza.
“In 2107, for the first time, we were able to vaccinate healthcare workers for influenza in Dak Lak province”…”This is extremely meaningful for us, because we all understand the importance and benefits of influenza vaccination.” — Dr. Mai Phuoc Loan, Provincial Preventative Medicine Center of Dak Lak Province
Recent PIVI Activities
- In May, Atlanta staff and partners from the Southeast European Center for Surveillance and Control of Infectious Diseases (SECID) traveled to Macedonia to meet representatives of the Macedonia Ministry of Health and Institute of Public Health. The goal of the meeting was to engage key stakeholders in Macedonia, and determine how best to move forward with Macedonia as a new PIVI partner country. Stakeholders were supportive of PIVI engagement in country, and eager to expand and sustain their flu vaccine program. Next steps for Macedonia include developing a work plan for future activities and a draft sustainability plan to guide vaccine program growth in the coming year(s). Upcoming activities in the SECID region include: 1) Media training for SECID countries (Fall 2018) and 2) Regional training among experts on advisory committees for influenza vaccination (’18-’19 season).
- Armenia hosted a workshop in evidence-based review in September 2017. Members of the NITAG working group on influenza vaccine convened for a five-day training, to be followed up by additional working sessions. The group is in the final stages of developing a national technical dossier to be presented to the NITAG for their consideration in decisions regarding influenza vaccine.
- Joe Bresee recently discussed the current status of influenza prevention and control in a CDC Podcast. The podcast gives a good overview of seasonal and pandemic flu, how big a problem flu is globally, why data on flu is so important, and the importance of flu vaccines. https://tools.cdc.gov/medialibrary/index.aspx#/media/id/382284
Other Activities:
- Kyrgyzstan completed an AEFI surveillance study in May 2018 and is writing a manuscript with the data.
- Albania just completed a Knowledge, Attitudes and Perception survey in Healthcare workers in June 2018.
- Green Cross Corporation donated 100,000 doses to PIVI to support flu vaccination efforts in our PIVI countries.
- PIVI has agreed to work on an agreement with UNICEF to provide doses to our PIVI countries for the 2018/2019 program year.
- PIVI was present at the recent Bi-regional Meeting of National Influenza Centers in Nepal in July.
Online Courses Available on OPENWHO.org
There is a new learning platform available for practitioners, response teams, volunteers, decision-makers and the general public who are interested in learning more about how WHO responds to emergencies. The courses include the latest knowledge on hazards faced and priority public health actions that should be implemented. Through OpenWHO, the WHO Health Emergencies Programme hopes to save more lives and reduce illness and societal damage by making epidemic, pandemic and health emergency response more effective, through transferring knowledge to the frontline quickly, in easy to use formats. The courses have been tested in recent responses to the Ebola outbreak in DRC, plague outbreak in Madagascar, Lassa Fever outbreak in Nigeria and other locations. Please visit the platform at http://openwho.org for more information.
Upcoming Events
The Task Force for Global Health and PIVI will be hosting an evening event on September 27th – Preparing for the Next Pandemic: Lessons from the 2017-18 Flu – at The Task Force for Global Health. To learn more visit https://www.taskforce.org/one-off-pages/flu-event
If you would like to register to receive this newsletter via email, please let us know at pivi@taskforce.org
