WHAT'S NEW THIS SUNDAY: SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH; THE SAGE ON MEASLES & RUBELLA; WEBPAGE ON VACCINATION CARDS

Saturday, 14th of July 2012

• WHAT’S NEW: WHA ON SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH; COMMENTS FROM THE SAGE ON MEASLES AND RUBELLA; READER FEEDBACK
  
• WORLD HEALTH ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS – NEW EMPHASIS ON SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH

World health Organization – WHO

Website: http://bit.ly/MDtxb2

Geneva, 25 May 2012 – WHO Member States today approved the decision on organizational reform. They welcomed programmatic reforms and emphasized the need to include health determinants and equity in the next Programme of Work and Proposed Programme Budget.

Among other things, they agreed to adopt a global target of a 25% reduction in premature mortality from noncommunicable diseases

-- Delegates to the World Health Assembly discussed proposals for reforming WHO in three areas: programmes and priority setting, governance, and management.

They expressed broad support for the reform agenda and the five categories of work: communicable diseases, noncommunicable diseases, health through the life-course, health systems, and preparedness, surveillance and response.

It was agreed to emphasize social determinants of health in the next General Programme of Work and Proposed Programme Budget.

A65/43 WHO reform
Sixth report of the Programme, Budget and Administration Committee of the Executive Board to the Sixty-fifth World Health Assembly
http://bit.ly/JJWAGk

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• COMMENTS FROM THE SAGE ON MEASLES AND RUBELLA

From the April 2012 meeting of WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts, published in the Weekly Epidemiological Record:

Only 2 Regions are on track to achieve measles elimination, the Region of the Americas and the Western Pacific Region, and despite considerable effort, other Regions are unlikely to meet their goals. Complacency and vaccine hesitancy, weak infrastructure and limited resources threatened progress towards elimination, with a funding gap of US$ 32 million for the implementation of supplementary immunization activities in 2012. In addition to campaigns, routine immunization, surveillance, outbreak response and operational research all required strengthening. SAGE reiterated that elimination of measles and rubella was more cost-effective than disease control. SAGE noted that some 60 countries still needed to integrate rubella into routine immunization

and stressed that there was a need to match high quality campaigns with strong routine vaccination systems.

SAGE was concerned about the European situation and the need to identify and target previously unimmunized adult populations. Excellent opportunities for bolstering efforts are provided through the renewed commitment of spearheading partners, the signing of a global measles-

rubella strategic plan, GAVI support for measles rubella vaccination campaigns for under-15 year-olds in 50 countries introducing rubella vaccine, and a potential GAVI specific allocation to measles activities. The measles-rubella SAGE working group has begun reviewing progress towards 2015 global measles control targets and regional measles and rubella elimination goals, and will provide regular updates to SAGE from November 2012.

• READER FEEDBACK

From David Brown, UNICEF HQ:

‘You might find the following of interest.

First, a website, located at https://sites.google.com/site/immunizationcardrepository/, has been created to facilitate the free and open exchange of information related to national immunization card content and design.  At present, immunization or child health cards from 58 countries are displayed.  We have asked WHO and UNICEF Regional Immunization Advisors to assist in improving the number of countries with cards represented is greatly appreciated.

I am hopeful to follow this repository with one that is focused on the free and open exchange of information on tally sheets and registers.

Second, we recently reviewed target population data collected from the WHO and UNICEF Joint Reporting Form.  A working paper highlighting patterns in these target population data can be accessed at https://sites.google.com/site/infantmortalityrate/.   In this exercise we observed numerous instances where the target population data submitted on the JRF and implied infant mortality rates computed from these data was widely inconsistent (by more than 25 percentage points) with infant mortality estimates maintained by the UN Interagency Group on Child Mortality Estimation and the UN Population Division.  This is not to say that the IGME or UNPD estimates are in fact any more or less correct than what the national authorities may estimate; however, the time-series maintained by IGME and UNPD are consistent which is not always the case in many countries.

As part of the annual JRF exercise, we notice when national EPI authorities do not review their time series data when completing the JRF.  Implausible data, irregular patterns and errors often become apparent.  Thus, we have encouraged our colleagues in the country offices to assist the national authorities in such an exercise.

Following the recent censuses that were completed around 2010, we are beginning to see some in national EPI programmes reach out to their colleagues in the national statistics office and request a review and update of target population estimates.  This is fantastic and we encourage this interaction as in many countries such dialogue between agencies does not exist.  We are looking for examples where EPI and the national statistics office are working closely together following a recent census to review and revise target population estimates as we are keen to learn and share these experiences with others that may benefit.

Let me know if there are any questions.

All the best,

David’

David BROWN, DSc, MScPH, MSc

United Nations Children’s Fund, Three UN Plaza, New York, New York, USA 10017

P: +1.212.303.79.88

E: dbrown at unicef dot org