Wednesday, 09 October 2002
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POST 00508E : AVAILABILITY OF TECHNICAL INFORMATION 9 October2002 ____________________________________________________ Philippe Jaillard's contribution in Post 00506E gave rise to these very important and relevant observations and suggestions from Alasdair Wylie (mailto:[log in to unmask]). Although this stems from the discussion on protection of more cold-sensitive vaccines, it is presented under this new heading. ____________________________________________________ Phillippe Jaillard's observations and plea do reflect reality as it is today for field staff and logisticians in very many countries. There are fundamental issues which WHO and UNICEF need to address at HQ, regional and country level to do with providing authoritative and accessible technical information, and support to field operations staff. Some initial thoughts are: - Get better at making sure people know what is already available; just saying its on the web (if it is) is not enough ! All country offices and project offices should keep hard copy reference sets of key documentation and always keep a spare set so that documents can be given if another agency or project needs, to be then replenished from the regional office or HQ. - Keep documents websites up to date and with good links ; the WHO V & B site fails on both these counts just now. - Use new opportunities to get both existing and new information, and guidance on key topics (within the general area of logistics/operations management and technical support) out to as wide an audience as possible. An example is the new WHO/UNICEF "V & B Update" quarterly newsletter - which readers will find mentioned on the V & B home page but not on their documents/newsletters site. I have already recommended to WHO that the theme and focus for the next issue of this be Safe Vaccine Handling (not mentioned in issue 1 on Safe Injections....) and that all future issues have a page/section devoted to vaccine handling/cold chain issues and news. I have not yet had an acknowledgement or response to those suggestions. - Where needed information is not available or accessible on an important topic, find out as fast as possible and let people know, and meanwhile let them know what is being done. The information related to Hep B freezing which Anthony has again asked about (POST 00506E) is the single most important example of this just now. - Revive regionally or subregionally based training (both basic and refresher) for national logistics officers. When was the last time any WHO regional office (or UNICEF office or anyone else) organised or supported such a course? - Support technical guidelines, policy and training with appropriate financial and supply support. CCMs and Freezewatches, not to mention VVMs on the other vaccines, don't materialise out of thin air. Neither did essential spare parts for steam sterilizers, one of a variety of reasons why they fell into disrepair and disrepute in many countries. Best regards Alasdair Wylie _____________________________________________ CONTRIBUTIONS: Contributions to: or use your reply button! The TechNet21 e-Forum welcomes new subscribers who are involved in immunization services. SUBCRIBE: To subscribe, send an e-mail to: Leave the SUBJECT area BLANK, do not type anything. In the body text, just write: Subscribe TECHNET21E Surname Name Do not use any accents in your name and surname. UNSUBSCRIBE: To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to: Leave the SUBJECT area BLANK, do not type anything. In the body text, just write: Unsubscribe TECHNET21E ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ARCHIVES Archives of posted messages classified by month starting with 1 January 2000 are accessible to all TechNet21 subscribers at the following site : http://listes.ulaval.ca/listserv/archives/technet21e.html Archives for postings prior to January 2000 can be found at the following site : http://www.who.int/vaccines-access/Vaccines/Vaccine_Cold_Chain/Technet Or by request to the Moderator at mailto:[log in to unmask] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Archives for files (documents) are under revision to clean old documents and drafts that are already replaced with new ones, and will be made available soon at a specific site. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The World Health Organization and UNICEF support TechNet21. The TechNet21 e-Forum is a communication/information tool for generation of ideas on how to improve immunization services. It is moderated by Claude Letarte and is hosted in cooperation with the Centre de coopération internationale en santé et développement, Québec, Canada (http://www.ccisd.org) -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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