Progress towards global polio eradication

The Potential Contribution of Supplementary Immunization Activities to Routine Immunization in Kebbi State, Nigeria

Background: Among the strategies of the Polio Eradication Initiative, the landmark interventions are routine immunization (RI) and supplementary immunization activities (SIAs). RI is the provision of vaccination service at the health facility and conducted year-round. SIAs are a community-based intervention targeting large numbers of an eligible population within a short period. Hence, the study aimed to assess the contributions of SIAs on access and utilization of RI services. Methods: We conducted the study in 10 local government areas in Kebbi State, northwestern Nigeria. We analyzed RI data from January to September 2019 and included the 4 SIAs conducted in January, April, August, and September in the same years. The number of children vaccinated, the trend of BCG, pentavalent vaccine at 6 and 10 weeks, and measles coverage and dropout rates (DORs) were analyzed. Results: For all the selected vaccines, the highest contributions to RI were recorded during the August 2019 fractional Inactivated Polio Vaccine (fIPV) campaign. On the other hand, the least contributions were noted during January SIAs. The BCG coverage showed an erratic trend with the lowest in February and highest in July 2019. The coverage for the pentavalent vaccine at 6 and 10 weeks was lowest in February and September. The pentavalent vaccine DOR pattern showed the lowest in February with value of 0% and the highest in June with 12%. Except for May and June, the Pentavalent vaccine DORs for all other months were <10%. February 2019 had the lowest measles coverage. Conclusion: Our study demonstrated that the integration of RI into SIAs could improve RI coverage. and potentially reduce DOR, especially when the integration is of good quality and conducted at short and regular intervals. Although SIAs are instrumental at increasing RI coverage, the disruption of RI services may occur due to overlapping resources and poor planning. Therefore, SIAs should be adequately planned by program managers to strengthen RI service delivery during the SIAs implementation.

The Effect of Real Time Integrated Supportive Supervision Visits on the Performance of Health Workers in Zambia

The use of online Integrated Supportive Supervision (ISS) is aimed to improve the quality of services provided by front line health workers. This work is aimed to document the effects of ISS on the performance of health workers in Zambia using selected key surveillance and immunization process indicators. ISS data on WHO ODK server of all Integrated Supportive Supervisory (ISS) visits that were conducted in Zambia between 1^st January 2018 to 30^th September 2018 were analysed to determine the Percentage point difference between the first and the most recent ISS visits in order to determine whether an observed gap during first ISS visit had persisted during the most recent ISS visit. Our study demonstrated that ISS has remarkable percentage point increase between the first and the most recent ISS visits on availability of an updated monitoring chart, health workers knowledge of AFP case definition and AFP case files. However, there exist variations in the frequency of ISS visits across the provinces of the country. Future research effort should consider assessing the quality of the ISS data through periodic data validation missions.

The impact of supplementary immunization activities on routine vaccination coverage: An instrumental variable analysis in five low-income countries

Background

Countries deliver vaccines either through routine health services or supplementary immunization activities (SIAs), usually community-based or door-to-door immunization campaigns. While SIAs have been successful at increasing coverage of vaccines in low- and middle-income countries, they may disrupt the delivery of routine health services. We examine the impact of SIAs on routine vaccine coverage in five low-income countries.

Methods

Data on the number and timing of SIAs conducted in various countries was compiled by WHO and obtained through UNICEF. Information on the coverage of vaccines not targeted by SIAs (e.g., DPT) was extracted from the Demographic and Health Surveys. We focus on SIAs that took place between 1996 and 2013 in Bangladesh, Senegal, Togo, Gambia, and Cote d’Ivoire, and examine outcomes for children aged 12–59 months. To avoid biases resulting from non-random placement and timing of SIAs, we use age of a child at her first SIA as an instrumental variable for total exposure to SIAs.

Results

We find that SIA exposure reduced the likelihood of receiving routine vaccines in all the countries included in the study; the coefficients of interest are however statistically insignificant for Gambia and Cote d’Ivoire. In countries that witnessed statistically significant SIA-induced declines in the likelihood of obtaining DPT 3, measles as well as BCG, reductions ranged from 1.3 percentage points (Senegal) to 5.5 percentage points (Bangladesh).

Conclusion

SIA exposure reduced routine vaccination rates in study countries. Efforts should be made to limit the detrimental impact of SIAs on the services provided by routine health systems.

Poliomyelitis

Poliomyelitis, often termed "polio," is an acute infectious disease caused by an enterovirus which damages the anterior horn cells of the spinal cord and brainstem. Progress to lower motor neurone cell death leads to disruption of motor units and subsequent muscle weakness or complete paralysis. Although the virus is mostly eradicated from the Western world, postpolio decline is prevalent among people aged 60 years and over. It is characterized primarily by fatigability and muscle weakness, but pain is also common. Reductions in lower-limb muscle strength, voluntary drive, and endurance are likely to contribute to the impaired balance control, slow gait, and dysfunctional lower-limb kinematics reported in polio survivors. Given these significant risk factors, polio survivors fall up to four times more often than their age-matched healthy peers. Interventions to improve function, reduce disability, and prevent falls in polio survivors are therefore clinically relevant but studies are lacking, limiting the evidence base. Balance training, cognitive behavioral therapy, and orthoses prescription might be recommended. Muscle-strengthening programs should be carefully designed and delivered due to their potential detrimental effects related to excessive use and potential dysfunction of motor neurones and their axons.

Polio Eradication Initiative contribution in strengthening immunization and integrated disease surveillance data management in WHO African region, 2014

INTRODUCTION

The PEI Programme in the WHO African region invested in recruitment of qualified staff in data management, developing data management system and standards operating systems since the revamp of the Polio Eradication Initiative in 1997 to cater for data management support needs in the Region. This support went beyond polio and was expanded to routine immunization and integrated surveillance of priority diseases. But the impact of the polio data management support to other programmes such as routine immunization and disease surveillance has not yet been fully documented. This is what this article seeks to demonstrate.

METHODS

We reviewed how Polio data management area of work evolved progressively along with the expansion of the data management team capacity and the evolution of the data management systems from initiation of the AFP case-based to routine immunization, other case based disease surveillance and Supplementary immunization activities.

RESULTS

IDSR has improved the data availability with support from IST Polio funded data managers who were collecting them from countries. The data management system developed by the polio team was used by countries to record information related to not only polio SIAs but also for other interventions. From the time when routine immunization data started to be part of polio data management team responsibility, the number of reports received went from around 4000 the first year (2005) to >30,000 the second year and to >47,000 in 2014.

CONCLUSION

Polio data management has helped to improve the overall VPD, IDSR and routine data management as well as emergency response in the Region. As we approach the polio end game, the African Region would benefit in using the already set infrastructure for other public health initiative in the Region.

Coordination as a best practice from the polio eradication initiative: Experiences from five member states in the African region of the World Health Organization

BACKGROUND

As part of the efforts to eradicate polioviruses in the African Region, structures were put in place to ensure coordinated mobilization and deployment of resources within the framework of the global polio eradication initiative (PEI). The successes of these structures made them not only attractive to other public health interventions, but also caused them to be deployed to the response efforts of other diseases interventions, without any systematic documentation. This article documents the contributions of PEI coordination units to other public health interventions in the African Region of World Health Organization METHODS: We reviewed the contributions of PEI coordination units to other public health interventions in five countries in the African Region.

RESULTS

The analysis identified significant involvement of PEI coordination structures in the implementation of routine immunization programs in all the countries analyzed. Similarly, maternal and child health programs were planned, implemented, monitored and evaluation the Inter-Agency Coordination Committees of the PEI programs in the different countries. The hubs system used in PEI in Chad facilitated the efficient coordination of resources for immunization and other public health interventions in Chad. Similarly, in the Democratic Republic of Congo PEI led coordination activities benefited other public health programs like disease control and the national nutrition program, the national malaria control program, and the tuberculosis control program. In Nigeria, the polio Expert Review Committee effectively deployed the Emergency Operation Center for the implementation of prioritized strategies and activities of the National Polio Eradication Emergency Plan, and it was utilized in the response to Ebola Virus Disease outbreak in the country.

CONCLUSIONS

The PEI-led coordination systems are thus recognized as having made significant contribution to the coordination and delivery of other public health interventions in the African Region.

Outbreaks of paralytic poliomyelitis during 1996-2012: the changing epidemiology of a disease in the final stages of eradication

BACKGROUND

Despite substantial progress toward eradication of poliomyelitis, the risk of poliomyelitis outbreaks resulting from virus importations into polio-free areas persists. We reviewed the changing epidemiology of outbreaks in the final stages of the eradication initiative.

METHODS

Available literature on outbreaks of poliomyelitis caused by wild polioviruses between 1996 and 2012 was reviewed.

RESULTS

During this period, there were 22 outbreaks involving 39 countries. Outbreaks ranged in size from 1 to 1335 cases. These outbreaks caused 4571 cases, representing 21% of all cases reported during this period. Five outbreaks involved multiple countries. In 76% of outbreaks (16/21) with a known age distribution, cases concentrated among children aged <5 years; in 19% (4/21), most cases were among adolescents and adults. The outbreaks among adolescents and adults were associated with higher case-fatality ratios, ranging from 12% in Albania in 1994 to 41% in the Republic of Congo in 2010. The majority of outbreaks were controlled within 6 months with oral poliovirus vaccine.

CONCLUSIONS

Importations resulting in epidemic transmission of wild poliovirus caused thousands of cases of paralysis often in countries where poliomyelitis had not occurred for many years. The changing epidemiology, with cases and higher case-fatality ratios among adults, increased the severity of these outbreaks.

Pregnancy, delivery and perinatal outcome in female survivors of polio

OBJECTIVE

To investigate possible effects on pregnancy, delivery and perinatal outcome in female survivors of polio.

METHODS

In a cohort design, data from the national population based Medical Birth Registry of Norway (MBRN) were used to compare all 2495 births recorded 1967-1998 by female survivors of polio with all 1.9 mill non-polio deliveries. The results were adjusted for time period, maternal age, and birth order by unconditional logistic regression, with effects presented as adjusted Odds Ratios (OR) with a corresponding 95% Confidence Interval (CI) and p values.

RESULTS

Female polio survivors had a higher occurrence of pre-eclampsia (3.4% vs. 2.8%, p=0.003, OR=1.4, CI=1.1-1.7), gestational proteinuria (1.3% vs. 0.5%, p<0.001, OR=2.0, CI=1.4-2.8), renal disease prior to pregnancy (1.4% vs. 0.9%, p=0.001, OR=1.8, CI=1.2-2.5), vaginal bleeding (3.8% vs. 2.0%, p<0.001, OR=1.7, CI=1.4-2.1), and urinary tract infection during pregnancy (3.5% vs. 2.4%, p<0.001, OR=1.7, CI=1.4-2.1). Deliveries complicated by obstruction of the birth process were more common in the polio group (6.1% vs. 2.0%, p<0.001, OR=4.8, CI=4.0-5.6), and cesarean section was performed at a higher rate throughout the time period (13.2% vs. 8.3%, p<0.001, OR=2.7, CI=2.4-3.1). Infants of polio mothers had a lower mean birth weight (3383 g vs. 3483 g, p<0.001), and more often had a birth weight below 2500 g (6.9% vs. 5.2%, p=0.001, OR=1.3, CI=1.1-1.5). There was no difference regarding pregnancy length. The risk of perinatal death was increased (2.1% vs. 1.1%, p=0.05, OR=1.3, CI=1.0-1.7).

CONCLUSION

Pregnancy in female survivors of polio is associated with an increased risk for complications during pregnancy and delivery, as well as an adverse perinatal outcome. Awareness towards risk factors should improve pre-natal care and possibly prevent complications.

Prevention of pertussis across the age spectrum through the use of the combination vaccines PENTACEL™ and ADACEL™

Acellular pertussis-containing combination vaccines are widely used in the developed world for the control of pertussis and have been successful in controlling disease in preschool-aged children. Combination vaccines formulated for use in adolescents and adults have been developed more recently and are increasingly being implemented for the control of pertussis in these age groups. One such family of products is PENTACEL (Haemophilus influenzae type b conjugate vaccine reconstituted with component pertussis vaccine and diphtheria and tetanus toxoids adsorbed combined with inactivated poliomyelitis vaccine, DTaP-IPV-Hib), for use in young children, and ADACEL (tetanus and diphtheria toxoids adsorbed combined with component pertussis vaccine, dTap) for use in adolescents and adults. These products have been demonstrated to be safe, immunogenic and effective for the control of pertussis and the other included diseases.

[Vaccinology in armed conflicts: a punctual intervention in poliomyelitis eradication in Afghanistan]

The situations of armed conflict suppose a handicap for the eradication of the poliomyelitis due to the difficulties to access the susceptible population. In Afghanistan, after the military operation which put an end to the Taliban regime, Spanish military sanitarians made an intervention in order to immunize the children of the zone where they were conducting their mission, against poliomyelitis. After having solved planning and logistic problems, two rounds of vaccination with IPV were made. A local translator helped to fill out a questionnaire about the state of immunization in that zone, providing information regarding the socio-demographic data of the children that showed up, their immunization status, their knowledge about vaccines and the efficacy of the various social mobilization activities utilized. 293 and 321 children were vaccinated in two different rounds. Very few of them had received a prior vaccination (10%) and they showed very little knowledge regarding immunization. Parents didn't involve themselves in the campaign, and knowledge about it was achieved better with the use of posters (70%) than with the use of radio ads (10%). Immunization is a health initiative that helps to improve the chances for peace.

Global public health mandates in a diverse world: the polio eradication initiative and the expanded programme on immunization in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia

BACKGROUND

The circulation of wild poliovirus is expected to cease soon due to the success of the global polio eradication initiative. Thereafter, intensified polio eradication efforts such as National Immunisation Days (NIDs) will most likely be discontinued. As a consequence, the expanded programme on immunization (EPI) will no longer enjoy extra inputs from the polio eradication initiative. We investigated whether today's EPIs are ensuring universal and equitable vaccine coverage; and whether the removal of extra inputs associated with the implementation of NIDs is likely to affect EPI coverage and equity.

METHODS

Using data from Demographic and Health Surveys conducted in 15 countries of South Asia and Africa during 1990-2001, we examined absolute levels of EPI coverage; changes in EPI coverage after the introduction of NIDs; and relative coverage according to urban versus rural residence, higher versus lower education of mothers, and wealthiest vs. poorest population segment.

RESULTS

Polio and non-polio antigen coverage increased in seven countries during the study period. Substantial inequalities in coverage of non-polio antigens persist, however, translating into inequities in the risk of contracting vaccine preventable diseases. In some African countries, routine EPI coverage and/or equity declined during the study period. In these countries, any positive effect of NIDs on the EPI coverage must have been small, relative to the negative effects of declining economies or deteriorating health systems. In Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Malawi, even polio coverage declined, in spite of the introduction of NIDs.

CONCLUSION

As additional inputs associated with polio eradication will cease, routine EPI services need to be strengthened substantially in order to maintain levels of population immunity against polio and to improve social equity in the coverage of non-polio EPI antigens. Our findings imply that this aim will require additional inputs, particularly in African countries.

The impact of the national polio immunization campaign on levels and equity in immunization coverage: evidence from rural North India

Few studies have investigated the impact of immunization campaigns conducted under the global polio eradication program on sustainability of polio vaccination coverage, on coverage of non-polio vaccines (administered under Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI)), and on changes in social inequities in immunization coverage. This study proposes to fill the gaps in the evidence by investigating the impact of a polio immunization campaign launched in India in 1995. The study uses a before-and-after study design using representative samples from rural areas of four North Indian states. The National Family Health Survey I (NFHS I) and NFHS II, conducted in 1992-93 and 1998-99 respectively, were used as pre- and post-intervention data. Using pooled data from both the surveys, multivariate logistic regression models with interaction terms were used to investigate the changes in social inequities. During the study period, a greater increase was observed in the coverage of first dose of polio compared to three doses of polio. Moderate improvements in at least one dose of non-polio EPI vaccinations, and no improvements in complete immunization against non-polio EPI diseases were observed. The polio campaign was successful, to some extent, in reducing gender-, caste- and wealth-based inequities, but had no impact on religion- or residence-based inequities. Social inequities in non-polio EPI vaccinations did not reduce during the study period. Significant dropouts between first and third dose of polio raise concerns of sustainability of immunization coverage under a campaign approach. Similarly, little evidence to support synergy between polio campaign and non-polio EPI vaccinations raises questions about the effects of polio campaign on routine health system's functions. However, moderate success of the polio campaign in reducing social inequities in polio coverage may offer valuable insights into the routine health systems for addressing persistent social inequities in access to health care.

Orthopaedics in the developing world: present and future concerns

Half of the world's population lack access to adequate primary health care, and two thirds lack access to orthopaedic care. Globally, the need for health care outstrips the available resources. This problem is compounded in the developing world by a lack of trained medical personnel, a lack of medical facilities, and, in many regions, an inability to access existing facilities. There is little specific epidemiologic data about the exact burden of musculoskeletal disease in these countries, but most agree that it is reasonable to assume that it will increase. In the least developed and developing nations, problems with access are related to fundamental issues such as infrastructure, physical facilities, equipment, and trained personnel. There are a number of ways in which the orthopaedic community can become involved in ameliorating the burden. Education is the most effective method of providing a sustainable solution. The objective of educational organizations should be to train local health-care workers at all levels in their own environment to provide sustainable and appropriate care so that the programs become self-sufficient and ensure a continued supply of competent medical personnel.