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Training activities
2008
Education and training activities
in 2008
Second Regional Vaccinology Course for Anglophone Countries
Nairobi, Kenya, 4-9 August 2008
Following a successful first vaccinology course in Douala, the second regional vaccinology course was organised in English and was hosted by the Republic of Kenya and co-financed by WHO, UNICEF, GAVI, USAID and NESI.
The 2nd Regional Vaccinology course targeted teachers or lecturers from medical schools, national EPI managers as well as EPI focal persons from WHO/UNICEF and other partners. The objectives of this regional vaccinology course were to train vaccinology trainers, to equip participants with the basic principles of immunology and specificities of a vaccine, how it is developed, produced, tested and utilized. As countries take up the challenge of deciding which new vaccines to introduce, they will need to have all available information at their disposal to make informed, evidence-based decisions.
The course was organised by WHO/Kenya with support from WHO/AFRO. In total, there were 33 participants and 18 co-facilitators. Participants and facilitators invited were from the following 15 countries: Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Belgium, Switzerland, Burkina Faso and Congo. Among these participants, there were 12 university academic staff, 12 national EPI managers and 9 WHO/UNICEF EPI focal persons. The course was co-facilitated by 18 experts: WHO/AFRO (5), WHO/HQ (2), WHO/IST South & East (1), WHO/IST-West (1), University of Antwerp/NESI(4), University of Limpopo- MEDUNSA –Campus (2), University of Ghana, Accra and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology in Kumasi (2) and MSP/Ghana (1).
The course was conducted in two successive sessions: two days for training of trainers (ToT) and six days for the vaccinology course. During the 2 day ToT session, facilitators were updated on lesson plan design and academic skills. The facilitators finalised their respective vaccinology lessons and a micro-teaching session (rehearsal) was organised to ensure that all lectures fully addressed the course objectives.
The course was opened and closed by the WR/Kenya and the UNICEF Representative of Kenya, respectively. The course content included: the scientific basis of vaccinology; the vaccine development process including vaccine clinical trials, the prequalification, registration, production and quality control of a vaccine; the status and new developments of Routine EPI vaccines and their implementation strategies; practical aspects of development and testing of new vaccines and specific management aspects of new and under-utilised vaccines; vaccine safety, vaccination in special target groups (immuno-compromised, pregnant women, adolescents and elderly), vaccine cost-effectiveness; future vaccines; EPI training and vaccine research. The sessions were very interactive through daily plenary sessions, group discussions and case studies. Balance between participants and facilitators led to very dynamic exchanges.
Participants evaluated the course daily regarding objective achievement, content relevance, effectiveness of facilitation and participation, and appropriateness of material organization. Those evaluations were very positive and revealed a satisfactory index of between 68%-91%. The summative qualitative evaluation of the vaccinology course revealed a satisfactory index of 86%. The need to improve the course through development of training modules and handouts was stressed by participants and facilitators. The course was strongly supported by the MOH/Kenya, WHO/Kenya and UNICEF/Kenya, and the need was stressed to conduct such vaccinology courses at inter-country and national levels.
Overall this 2nd regional vaccinology course for Anglophone countries was highly appreciated.
Some key recommendations of the course included:
- To organise a workshop to develop descriptive modules and handouts on vaccinology in collaboration with HQ, UNICEF, NESI and the EPI pre-service training network.
- To support countries and training institutions to update their training materials in line with new developments in EPI and vaccinology, and to replicate similar trainings.
- To conduct subsequent regional vaccinology courses in order to get a critical mass of potential facilitators within countries.
- To support pre-service training institutions to use EPI curricula prototypes.
- To mobilise needed financial and human resources to support inter-country and in-country vaccinology training.
Second Regional Vaccinology Course for Francophone countries
Ouidah, Benin, 4-11 October 2008
Following a successful first workshop in Douala in 2007, the second Francophone regional vaccinology course was organised by WHO/AFRO and the Ministry of Health of Benin, in collaboration with UNICEF, NESI and the University Cheikh Anta Djop (Dakar, Senegal), from 4 to 11 October 2008. The purpose of this vaccinology course was to build capacity of immunisation key players in countries of the AFRO Region in scientific and public health aspects of vaccines and vaccination programmes.
The course aimed to contribute to the establishment of competent national immunisation technical advisory groups (NITAGs), capable of preparing evidence-based recommendations to Ministries of Health on the introduction of under-utilised and new vaccines, such as Hepatitis B, Hib, conjugate pneumococcal and meningococcal vaccines, rotavirus vaccines and HPV vaccines. In the future, these technical advisory groups may also consider vaccines that are in the pipeline, such as malaria, TB and HIV vaccines. As countries take up the challenge of deciding which vaccines to introduce, WHO/AFRO and partners want to ensure that these technical advisory groups have all the available information at their disposal to make informed, evidence-based decisions.
Participants included professors/academics/researchers (13), EPI managers (17) and WHO/UNICEF staff members and EPI focal points (11). The course was attended by 41 participants of the following countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinée, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, RDC, Rwanda, Senegal and Togo. Facilitators were from WHO/AFRO and Inter-country teams (5), WHO/HQ (2), NESI (3), WHO/Benin (4), UNICEF/Benin (1), University of Bamako (1) and PATH MVI (1).
The actual vaccinology course was preceded by a two-day Training of Trainers workshop, to enable the facilitators to peer review course content and group work. Teaching methods during the course included: individual pre-reading, lectures and short presentations using interactive media, group work, discussions in plenary and group sessions, case studies and role playing. Discussions and requests for clarifications were held after each set of complimentary presentations.
The overall evaluation of the course was very positive: all topics were rated above 70%, and 79% of all the topics were rated between 80 and 90%. Lectures which were most appreciated included: basic scientific aspects of vaccine development, vaccine terminology, immunology, clinical trials, ethical aspects, and the different presentations on new vaccines.
Vaccinology Symposium
Hermanus, Cape Town, South Africa, 26-28 October 2008
The meeting in Hermanus was the fifth national vaccinology symposium of South Africa. The symposium was attended by experts from the major universities, the national and provincial departments of health, and the private sector. The symposium was organised by Prof. Barry Schoub from the National Institute of Communicable diseases/National Health Laboratory Service, and linked with Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg. The meeting aimed to foster national (South African) expertise teams in vaccinology, an objective in line with NESI objectives and activities. South Africa being the only sub-Saharan country with a significant private sector, the public/private sector collaboration and schedule harmonisation were interesting issues for discussion. Prof. André Meheus was invited guest speaker and presented on ‘Introduction of new vaccines: public health and policy decisions’ and on ‘Adolescent vaccination’. Both topics were of great relevance as South Africa recently took the decision to introduce pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccines and a combination vaccine (pentavalent) including IPV. The national advisory group of experts also supports introduction of HPV vaccine but here the policy decision has not yet been taken. The topic on adolescent vaccination was of great interest related to potential HPV vaccine introduction, the need for booster doses and catch-up vaccinations for young adolescents.
Adolescent Vaccination
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Introduction of new vaccines
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