Resources

PATH, in close partnership with Vietnam's National Expanded Program on Immunization (NEPI), has worked to increase the quality, safety, and efficiency of immunization services through the Iris Project. This fact sheet describes the project's process of testing province-wide systems improvements, identifying best practices, and encouraging other provinces to adopt the improvements. Work included updating and improving policies, training staff, and increasing community knowledge and demand for vaccination, particularly through technical updates, training of trainers, an introduction to supportive supervision, an out-of-the-cold-chain study, and an injection safety project with needle removers.

PATH and the Vietnam Ministry of Health implemented a six-month demonstration project in Huong Khe District, Ha Tinh Province, Vietnam, to assess the acceptability, performance, and impact on waste disposal of a manual needle remover introduced at commune health centers. The results of this demonstration project will enable the Vietnam National Immunization Program to explore alternative methods that may be more effective and appropriate than current practices for managing medical waste at the commune level. This report provides background, methodology, results, discussion, and references associated with an evaluation of the project.

This study by PATH's Japanese encephalitis (JE) project evaluated whether measles vaccine and the live, attenuated JE vaccine can be safely co-administered with no effect on the immunogenicity of either.

This edition of PATH Today features the article "Focusing on pneumonia" and updates on the Cambodia milestone in immunization coverage, new IRA rollover options for donors, Global Impact, and a profile on PATH donor Brandon Schaefer.