This brief summarizes key findings from a literature review conducted by PATH to identify published and gray literature reporting international experiences with the Uniject™ injection system. The findings shed light on user acceptability and highlight potential cost savings in terms of training time, waste management, and reduction in drug wastage when Uniject is used instead of a standard autodisable syringe. This document synthesizes the experience and evidence on the use of Uniject worldwide with medicines such as the injectable contraceptive Cyclofem®, hepatitis B and tetanus toxoid vaccines, as well as the drug oxytocin, which is used to prevent postpartum hemorrhage.

Publication date: February 2011

Region: Global

Keeping heat-sensitive vaccines at the right temperature is crucial yet often difficult in areas with limited or no electrical power. Project Optimize collaborated with the Vietnam National Expanded Programme on Immunization to evaluate two technologies to respond to this challenge. One was a direct-drive solar refrigerator and the other a passive cooling device. This brief describes the lessons learned from the demonstration—information which can be used by other country programs considering these devices for long-term storage of vaccines.

Publication date: January 2013

Region: Asia

This project Optimize study is a compilation of the literature available on the use of vaccines outside of the cold chain. Most of the studies analyzed in this review focus on hepatitis B, with one exception—a study examining meningococcal C vaccine.

Author: Villadiego S

Publication date: August 2008

Region: Global

PATH’s Safe Water Project is implementing an innovative project with the goal of enabling commercial enterprises to produce, distribute, sell, and maintain effective household water treatment and storage products for low-income populations in multiple developing countries around the world. This report shares the findings from user testing conducted for five such products in Andhra Pradesh, India, in 2009.

Publication date: March 2011

Region: Asia

This document provides the user with guidelines on how to use a Balcan type needle remover safely.

Author: Berman A

Publication date: 2006

Region: Global

This document provides a set of guidelines for correctly using a protected sharps barrel.

Author: Berman A

Publication date: 2006

Region: Global

This document provides a list of steps to follow for correctly using a protected sharps pit.

Author: Berman A

Publication date: 2006

Region: Global

This job aid provides written and pictoral instruction for health workers for the administration of oxytocin in the Uniject™ injection system.

Publication date: August 2011

Region: Global

This presentation is a tool for training health workers on how to use oxytocin in the Uniject™ injection system. The tool is editable so that facilitators can tailor it to their program's needs. It is available in English and Spanish.

Publication date: August 2011

Region: Global

Author: Nelson C; Widjaya A; Wittet S

Publication date: 2002

Region: Global

Part of series: CVP Occasional Papers

Project Optimize, a collaboration between the World Health Organization and PATH, assessed the cost implications of leveraging a regional distribution center for the international transportation of vaccines. This report outlines the economic issues that need to be addressed for such a solution to be acceptable to country decision-makers, vaccine manufacturers, and private-sector warehouse and distribution companies.

Publication date: December 2011

Region: Global

PATH’s Vaccine Resource Library (VRL) seeks to gather the world’s best immunization resources in a single, easy-to-use website. The VRL offers a wide variety of high-quality, scientifically accurate documents and links on specific diseases and topics in immunization. It is geared for health professionals in the developing and industrialized worlds, as well as for journalists, policymakers, community leaders, parents, and others interested in vaccine-related resources. The resources found on the VRL are collected from a variety of sources, including news media, scientific journals, and leaders in public health.

Publication date: 2013

Region: Global

Part of series: Websites

Part of the Technology Updates series, this fact sheet describes PATH's work on vaccine stabilization, including the development of a method to protect vaccines containing an aluminum adjuvant from freeze damage, the identification of a technology to improve the heat stability of certain vaccines, and the improvement of vaccine stability through reformulation involving glass-forming sugars plus other excipients and processing via spray drying.

Publication date: May 2012

Region: Global

Part of series: Technology Updates

PATH and our partners have been advancing innovative vaccine technologies for more than 30 years. This report outlines our approach and capabilities. It also describes a number of individual vaccine technologies at various stages of development and market introduction to put this work in context. 

Publication date: September 2010

Region: Global

Commissioned by project Optimize, a collaboration of PATH and the World Health Organization, a study of vaccine vial monitor (VVM) availability and use in developing countries in four regions was undertaken. The study had three aspects: the total proportion of vaccines with VVMs in the regions with detailed information by country, in-depth information on policies and practices, and knowledge and attitudes in a selected sample of countries.

Author: Milstein J

Publication date: August 2010

Region: Global

Part of the Technology Updates series, this fact sheet describes PATH's work on vaccine vial monitors.

Publication date: May 2012

Region: Global

Part of series: Technology Updates

Vaccine vial monitors (VVMs) are small stickers that adhere to vaccine vials and change color as the vaccine is exposed to heat, letting health workers know whether the vaccine can be safely used for immunization. This fact sheet answers the most frequently asked questions regarding VVMs.

Publication date: January 2011

Region: Global

Part of the Technology Updates series, this fact sheet describes PATH's work on the Uniject™ injection system for use with vaccines.

Publication date: April 2012

Region: Global

Part of series: Technology Updates

This document assesses the correspondence between retinol and retinol-binding protein (RBP), as well as the stability of RBP subjected to varying temperature conditions over time, the effect of light, and the feasibility of using dried blood spots. The assessment is part of a larger project examining the use of the RBP enzyme immunoassay (RBP-EIA) to test for vitamin A deficiency.

Publication date: 2006

Region: Africa

This document shares data from Guinea-Bissau that provide validation of the retinol-binding protein enzyme immunoassay (RBP-EIA) test from serum samples, while also providing initial data on the feasibility of using dried blood samples as a specimen type for the assessment of vitamin A deficiency in the field.

Publication date: 2006

Region: Africa