The Global Immunization News (GIN) newsletter for this month includes a poliovirus containment activities update for our Region on page 9. Read more about it here.
The report of the Meeting of the Polio Laboratory Network of the WHO European Region (27-28 June 2016) is published and is available in English and Russian.
Dear all,
The eradication of wild poliovirus type 2 (WPV2) has been declared in September 2015 by the Global Commission for the Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication (GCC). The use of trivalent oral poliovirus vaccines (tOPV) containing attenuated viruses of the three poliovirus subtypes, including type 2, was stopped worldwide in May 2016.
The retention of all type 2 polioviruses (PV2) is now subject to the containment requirements described in the Global Action Plan III for poliovirus containment (GAPIII) (http://polioeradication.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/GAPIII_2014.pdf).
The certification of facilities against GAPIII is a national responsibility, an activity that will be overseen at international level by the Global Commission for the Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication (GCC) to ensure robust, transparent and equitable certification mechanisms are applied in different countries and for different facilities.
WHO has opened a call for nomination of members of the GCC Containment Working Group (GCC-CWG). The new GCC-CWG is being established to review national containment certification activities and make recommendations to GCC, with the aim of providing the required level of assurance that GAPIII controls are appropriately identified, implemented and monitored.
WHO is encouraging the submission of applications for membership to the GCC-CWG before Friday 28 October 2016. Please see http://polioeradication.org/polio-today/preparing-for-a-polio-free-world/containment/containment-supporting-groups/ for more details.
Please share this information with all members of your association/organization.
The report of the 30th Meeting of the European Regional Certification Commission for Poliomyelitis Eradication (RCC) can be found here.
WHO guidance on safe hadling of PV2 in GPLN laboratories is published and is available for download at the GPLNMS website.
A copy of the report can be downloaded here.
The Global Commission for the Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication (GCC) today concluded that wild poliovirus type 2 (WPV2) has been eradicated worldwide. The GCC reached its conclusion after reviewing formal documentation submitted by Member States, global poliovirus laboratory network and surveillance systems. The last detected WPV2 dates to 1999, from Aligarh, northern India. See more here.
The report of the 29th Meeting of the European Regional Certification Commission for Poliomyelitis Eradication (RCC) can be downloaded here
The meeting report is available here.
The new features include:
- All laboratories can now review their weekly reporting performance (both current and past).
- Data fields were added to capture the isolation results when working in the new algorithm. Laboratories that will adopt only the cell culture part of the algorithm can now report their findings (see drop-down options in the “Isolation result” section). Also, samples on FTA paper can now be registered as such.
- If you forgot your password, you can reset it using this interface (some of you may have not noticed this feature earlier).
- Two new columns have been added to specimen export list in MS Excel to reflect the changes described in section 2.
Recently published: "Responding to a poliovirus outbreak. Standard Operating Procedures for a new polio outbreak in a polio-free country". Full text can be found here.
The 28th Meeting of the European Regional Certification Commission for Poliomyelitis Eradication (RCC) reviewed annual updates submitted by the Member States of the Region on the status of the national polio eradication programme. The RCC concluded that with the exception of Israel, there was no wild-type poliovirus (WPV) or vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) transmission in the WHO European Region in 2013, but the risk of importation and subsequent transmission remains high in some countries. Evidence from Israel for a full 6‐month absence of WPV transmission in the presence of enhanced surveillance is required before the RCC can make a final decision on the polio‐free status of the Region. The RCC also identified issues that threatened the future polio‐free status of the Region and proposed actions to be taken by Member States and the Regional Office for reducing the risk of polioviruses circulating in the Region. The full report can be found here.
WHO/Europe organized the training to ensure that professionals could prevent the accidental or deliberate spread of diseases in their work. This was part of a project co-funded by the European Union (EU) to strengthen the safety and security of public health laboratories. Two courses were held in Ashgabat on 30 June–4 July 2014 at the request of the Ministry of Health and Medical Industry of Turkmenistan. More information here
Full statement here
Checklist version for national and sub-national polio laboratories in English
Checklist version for Regional, Global Specialized and ITD-performing polio laboratories in English
Checklist version for sequencing polio laboratories in English
Вопросник на русском языке для национальных и суб-национальных полио лабораторий
This short survey seeks to identify the availability of Laboratory Information Systems (LIS) to jurisdictional public health laboratories and their added value in public health surveillance. Your responses will be confidential and will help WHO to support the needs of public health laboratories in developing countries in modern information technologies. The survey results will be reported back to participants. The survey template could be downloaded here
The report could be found here.
Checklist version for national and sub-national polio laboratories in English
Checklist version for Regional, Global Specialized and ITD-performing polio laboratories in English
Checklist version for sequencing polio laboratories in English
Вопросник на русском языке для национальных и суб-национальных полио лабораторий
The PDF version of the report in English could be found here.
Файл русской версии отчета в формате PDF находится здесь.
The Russian language version of the report could be found here. The English translation will be uploaded soon.
Русская версия отчета находится здесь. Перевод отчета на английский язык будет предоставлен позже.
The WHO Laboratory Assessment Tool (and its annexes) is available in Russian, French and Spanish (in addition to English):
French: http://www.who.int/ihr/publications/laboratory_tool/fr/index.html
Spanish: http://www.who.int/ihr/publications/laboratory_tool/es/index.html
Russian: http://www.who.int/ihr/publications/laboratory_tool/ru/index.html
English : http://www.who.int/ihr/publications/laboratory_tool/en/index.html
The WHO/CDC/CLSI Laboratory Quality Management Training toolkit is available in French and Russian (in addition to English) :
French: http://www.who.int/ihr/training/laboratory_quality/fr/index.html
Russian: http://www.who.int/ihr/training/laboratory_quality/ru/index.html
English: http://www.who.int/ihr/training/laboratory_quality/en/index.html
CD-Roms in French are available upon request.
The WHO/CDC/CLSI Laboratory Quality Management Handbook is available in PDF in English at http://www.who.int/ihr/publications/lqms/en/index.html . Hard copies of the handbook can be ordered at the WHO book shop at http://apps.who.int/bookorders/anglais/detart1.jsp?codlan=1&codcol=15&codcch=828. Translations in French and Russian are on-going.
The World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe conducted a two-day Infectious Substances Shipping Training (ISST) course in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on 6-7 September 2012. The training was aimed at national specialists and 24 participants involved in the shipping of infections substances (i.e. virologists, bacteriologists and laboratory managers) from regional, subregional and reference laboratories took part in the course. The training consisted of face-to-face interactive lectures, short presentations, demonstrations, hands-on activity, Q&A sessions and a final examination. More information here.
The Polio Research Committee (PRC) is currently soliciting research proposals to support the implementation of the Global Polio Emergency Action Plan 2012-13 and the Polio Eradication and Endgame Strategy 2014-18, with particular focus on the below topics.
The PRC seeks targeted proposals that address specific needs of polio eradication that will contribute to the effort within 12-18 months. All proposals are reviewed by the PRC which will meet end-September 2012, with outcomes of the reviews available shortly thereafter.
Applications from investigators/researchers in countries with ongoing polio circulation are particularly important to the PRC.
I. Monitoring and improving supplementary immunization activities (activities 2 and 3 of the Global Polio Emergency Action Plan 2012-13)
- Assess and address barriers to service delivery, including vaccinator team composition, performance, and training and community perceptions around supplementary immunization activities.
- Investigate attitude, knowledge and practice (KAP) of health workers at all levels.
II. Surveillance (activity 5)
- Develop new assays to improve sensitivity, specificity and efficiency of vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) detection in stool and environmental samples.
- Develop new approaches and tools for better genetic, antigenic, transmissibility and pathogenicity characterization of VDPV and borderline Sabin-like viruses (mapping determinants of pathogenicity in pre-emerging and emerging VDPVs).
- Improve field and laboratory methods for environmental surveillance of polioviruses (safer, more efficient and faster).
III. Vaccines (activity 7)
- Characterize the immune response after a single dose of inactivated polio vaccine – IPV - (e.g., memory cells, duration) and its ability to prime for an enhanced systemic and mucosal response on oral polio vaccine (OPV) challenge.
- Assess technical and operational challenges in an IPV demonstration study in high-risk areas in introducing IPV in routine immunization (either as IPV-only schedule or IPV-OPV schedule), and determine impact of IPV on prevention of VDPV emergence.
- Develop a “low cost” IPV option (e.g., dose-sparing, adjuvanted IPV)
- Assess different options to improve vaccine availability and utilization at local clinics (e.g., improved monitoring, feedback).
IV. Communication and social mobilization (activity 8)
- Undertake systematic research/monitoring to identify and understand the social reasons for chronically-missed children.
- Evaluate different strategies (e.g., based on successful India programme) to reach high-risk and chronically-missed children (e.g. migrant and underserved communities).
- Assess different approaches to create, sustain and evaluate political commitment and accountability.
Procedure for submission of proposals:
In order to submit a proposal, all applicants should fill out the standard research proposal form available at: http://www.polioeradication.org/Research/Grantsandcollaboration.aspx
Researchers are invited to submit proposals by emailing the completed application form to polioresearch@who.int. The application deadline is 31 August 2012. In order to be considered, applicants must submit a completed research proposal by the deadline. Applications that are incomplete will not be considered.
Principle research investigators can send questions to polioresearch@who.int.
The Laboratory Data Management System (LDMS) for the WHO Europe polio laboratories will be presented at the Congress in Bangkok, Thailand. If you are going to be in Bangkok during the Congress, look for our presentation stand on 14 June and learn more about the new features of our software and provide user´s feedback to us to make LDMS even better! All are welcome! (http://www.xcdsystem.com/icid2012/41.013.html)
The report of the WHO Europe Polio Laboratory Network Sub-Regional meeting is now available online (in Russian only), click here
Отчет суб-регионального совещания лабораторной сети ЕРБ ВОЗ по диагностике полиомиелита (русская версия), нажмите здесь
The report of the WHO Europe Polio Global Specialized and Regional Reference Laboratories 2011 meeting is now available online.
Thanks to our colleagues from CDC, the FTA paper application instructional video is now online. It is accessible after a log in process into LDMS is completed. The video is available in both English and Russian.
Polio is almost completely eradicated. But as Bruce Aylward says: Almost isn't good enough with a disease this terrifying. Aylward lays out the plan to continue the scientific miracle that ended polio in most of the world -- and to snuff it out everywhere, forever. Click here to watch the talk on the TED website.
Centralized Information System for Infectious Diseases