Resources

The goal of the antenatal care (ANC)-based malaria surveillance study is to assess the potential for pregnant women attending their first ANC visit to be used as an easy-to-access sentinel population at health facilities to monitor trends in prevalence of malaria infection and the coverage of malaria control interventions in study districts, correlated with similar metrics obtained during annual community-based cross-sectional surveys (CSS). The New Nets Project (NNP) is conducting annual cross-sectional surveys in three study districts each in Burkina Faso and western Mozambique and in four study local government areas in Nigeria, with the primary aim of evaluating the impact of next-generation dual active ingredient insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) compared to standard pyrethroid-only ITNs. Through funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The Global Fund, testing for malaria of all pregnant women at during their first ANC visit is being implemented at select health facilities in NNP study districts for two years (2020–2022).This descriptive report presents a summary of preliminary results generated from the first months of data collection in Burkina Faso, Mozambique, and Nigeria. It begins with an overview of the study sites and timeline, followed by a summary of the study population and data collection and analysis methods. The findings from each country are then presented, including prevalence and ITN and care-seeking indicators. Each country section closes with a discussion on the ANC-based surveillance results and how they seemingly compare to results from the annual household CSSs from the NNP.

This is the first resource in a project to develop a supply chain roadmap of vaccine manufacturing in Africa. The project seeks to quantify the gap between today's capacity and desired future capacity to support the Partnerships for African Vaccine Manufacturing Framework for Action, which sets the goal of manufacturing 60 percent of Africa's routine immunization needs on the continent by 2040.This map identifies existing African vaccine manufacturers and their capabilities, as well as provides an initial analysis and conclusions about the current African vaccine manufacturing landscape. This map can be used by national governments, pharmaceutical industry partners, philanthropic foundations, private sector organizations, and others to inform them of the current state of manufacturing and guide their plans for the future.

Accidental interruption of the cold chain storage of health products can create problems such as spoilage, changes in the appearance, taste, or smell, growth of harmful bacteria, or lost potency. As part of PATH’s work in supply systems and equipment, this presentation provides insights into the biggest challenges in the cold chain management of temperature-sensitive health commodities in Primary Health Care (PHC) as well as key opportunities and potential risks with integrating non-vaccine products into existing vaccine cold chains. A review of literature and a stakeholder survey has revealed key recommendations, including improving the availability and quality of supply chain data to increase awareness and support policies for investing in strengthening the cold chain for essential medicines and diagnostics, improving guidelines for temperature management and monitoring of temperature-sensitive non-vaccine health products, and improving the availability and reliability of cold storage equipment for equitable distribution and service delivery.

This joint capacity statement showcases how PATH works to unite the historically siloed sectors of primary health care (PHC) and epidemic preparedness and response (EPR) to build more resilient health systems. By combining PATH's technical capacities and experience in preventive health services, surveillance, data management, and response, we are able to more effectively partner with countries to address infectious disease epidemics, impacts from climate-change, antimicrobial resistance, and other emerging barriers to health equity.

In 2020, Ghana switched from using ROTARIX® to ROTAVAC® in its national immunization program. PATH worked with Ghana Health Service and the University of Ghana to analyze the economic implications of this switch. These four fact sheets explore the key results of these analyses, collectively providing a case study on Ghana’s rotavirus vaccine product switch.(Manuscript pending submission to a peer-reviewed journal.)