Post 00913e : Vaccination Decision Tool

POST 00913E : VACCINATION DECISION TOOL 19 April 2006 ______________________________________________________ Robert Steinglass (mailto:[email protected]) from IMMUNIZATIONbasics in the United States, sends a tool (attached) to help staff decide which vaccination to administer on a child's visit to the health center. __________________________________________________________ Staff in the field generally know what to do when a child comes for vaccination at the ideal ages: birth, 6, 10, 14 weeks, 9 months. But over and over again, I see that they frequently have difficulty interpreting what to do when a child comes at odd or in-between ages. In many countries, I continue to see OPV0 given at 8 months of age or even older, which results in delayed pertussis protection by at least 4 weeks, because staff incorrectly believe that the birth dose must come before any of the others can be administered. Similarly, I continue to see measles not given at 9 months of age because staff believe that it must be the last vaccine in the series and not all vaccines have yet been given. And I see many staff who believe that the series must be re-started if interrupted by more than 2 months. And of course, staff are often reluctant to give more than one injectable vaccination on the same visit. This tool was originally developed for East Timor, then adapted for India. I hope that it will be tested one day soon in a number of countries. I believe it may be of use in other countries. I am sending the tool because as the immunization schedule gets slightly more complicated with the addition of new vaccines. I think we need to re-focus efforts on aiding field staff to operationalize our directives. Please feel free to use or adapt such a tool. I would also be curious to know what you think of it. Cheers, Robert ______________________________________________________________________________ Visit the TECHNET21 Website at http://www.technet21.org You will find instructions to subscribe, a direct access to archives, links to reference documents and other features. ______________________________________________________________________________ To UNSUBSCRIBE, send a message to : mailto:[email protected] Leave the subject area BLANK In the message body, write unsubscribe TECHNET21E ______________________________________________________________________________ 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 internationale en sant, Canada (http://www.ccisd.org) ______________________________________________________________________________ ##text##