ISLAMABAD: Noting improvements in the capital, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) has announced $20 million to assist with the cold chain management system for vaccines.

The financial assistance has been announced just after the release of the Independent Monitoring Board on Polio report, which suggested methods to improve the performance of Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) across the country.

In 2015, vaccines that could have been used to vaccinate around 1.3m children for five diseases spoiled in EPI storage at the National Institute of Health (NIH). The institute’s management was not aware that the vaccines had spoiled, and was informed in an email that was also sent to the World Health Organisation, Unicef and other international donors.

Financial assistance announced after Independent Monitoring Board on Polio report

An inquiry committee was constituted to look into the incident, and USAID requested immediate reforms in the EPI, in response to which, $1.5m of immediate technical support was given. Officials trained in cold chain management were deputed from NIH along with a team from USAID’s Deliver project, and a vaccine management system was finally established in Islamabad by the end of 2015.

The new system allows Pakistan’s vaccine data to be access from anywhere in the world using a web-based system and EPI operations can also be monitored online. International good practices including scanning and stock sufficiency are also managed and monitored daily.

National Health Services (NHS) Director General Dr Asad Hafeez told Dawn that after the new vaccine management system was introduced, GAVI recommended that 78 other developing countries follow the Pakistan model and announced $20m to establish a cold chain management system across the country, to prevent vaccines from spoiling.

He said that during the two year programme, the provinces will be involved in other to make warehouses and other arrangements to ensure the quality of vaccines does not suffer during transportation and storage in the provinces.

Vaccines can spoil if they are not stored at the right temperature.

Dr Hafeez said cold chain assessment is already carried out across the country, and a number of gaps have been identified.

“Moreover Pakistan is the only country that has introduced the inactivated polio vaccine, rotavirus and pneumococcal vaccines simultaneously. We have improved the domestic budget for the vaccination and the National Immunisation Support Platform has been established, which has linked the immunisation budget with performance, due to which GAVI has been appreciating our performance,” he said.

Dr Hafeez added that in the next two years, the NHS ministry hopes to revamp the country’s immunisation programme and has been coordinating with the provinces to ensure implementation.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2017