Southeast Asia countries commemorate their achievements from Japanese encephalitis sustainability and COVID-19 vaccine introduction and deployment, 2018-2023

The workshop highlights the partnership and coordination between PATH and DHHP that spanned throughout this Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies (MACP) funding from the initial phase of the Japanese encephalitis (JE) vaccination program to its final phase of COVID-19 vaccine introduction and deployment. For that, PATH staff was honored to receive the Certificate of Appreciation from Laos MOH for its extraordinary contribution to Laos national immunization programs.

JE is a deadly infection of the brain that is transmitted by mosquitoes. The disease is endemic across Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific and mostly infects children, killing 30 percent of those who fall ill with the disease and leaving up to half of all survivors with permanent neurological damage. It is a devastating disease—and it is preventable through vaccination. Laos suffers a heavy JE burden; yet despite the effort of JE vaccine incorporation into the routine immunization system, vaccine uptake declined rapidly after initial introduction in 2015.

So, over the years 2019–2022, despite complications due to the COVID-19 pandemic, PATH and Laos have partnered to strengthen the country’s immunization system to reach more children with these lifesaving JE vaccines with the Sustaining the Japanese Encephalitis Vaccination Program in Laos project. The project planned and launched a nationwide JE vaccination catch-up campaign—ongoing until July 2022—to reach 189,864 children who had previously missed out on vaccination, bringing coverage to 80% or higher as a national target in project provinces.

During the project timeline, various activities were conducted to support immunization implementation, including training of trainers, a cascade training series on essential immunization topics, the utilization and management of eLearning resources, project management support for health care staff at the centers, and assistance with conducting outreach activities.

With the advent of the pandemic, new concerns arose. PATH and the Laos MOH identified additional needs to be addressed to help the country prepare for and implement COVID-19 vaccination campaigns in addition to continuing the work to strengthen Laos’ routine immunization system. This new focus provided an excellent opportunity to leverage Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies grant funding to enhance completion of original project goals along with new COVID-19 goals, granting PATH the Technical assistance on COVID-19 vaccine introduction and deployment plan project in Lao PDR.

With leverage from the success of the JE vaccination campaign, 728,726 doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered in the three project provinces. The project continued to demonstrate its effectiveness in utilizing limited resources to enhance capacity, improve the immunization system, and sustain activities beyond the project period.

Dr. Phonepaseuth Ounaphom, Director of DHHP, states “Evidence of project achievements across vaccines (JE and then COVID-19) in three different project provinces showed that what these projects provided was a subnational model package of interventions to strengthen the immunization system. This model package can be adapted for different kinds of antigen campaigns and applied for other provinces in the country or even other countries in the region…. Building on the exciting project momentum, DHHP commits to continue these achievements and plans on further expanding the model package to other provinces.”

Delegates from Cambodia also shared their experiences and achievements in the fight against COVID-19 and JE as well as their effort to build their immunization system. The workshop concluded with an in-depth and fruitful panel discussion on not only sustaining the achievements from the project but also further strengthening the immunization system in Southeast Asia.