The Exemplar Newsletter: February 2024
Exemplars in Global Health
We provide evidence-based insights from positive outliers to help decision-makers achieve large-scale success.
The following is an excerpt from the monthly newsletter from Exemplars in Global Health, a global coalition of partners on a mission to identify positive health outliers, analyze what makes countries successful, and disseminate core lessons so they can be adapted in comparable settings.
Read on to hear from Niranjan Bose, Health and Life Sciences Managing Director at Gates Ventures. You can also subscribe to The Exemplar to hear more from the program on a monthly basis.
Bright spots in vaccine delivery
Immunization is one of the most effective public health interventions the world has ever seen. And yet, each year, more than 19 million children do not receive the vaccines they need to live healthy, productive lives.
Take DTP, the essential diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine and a global standard for measuring the performance of a country’s immunization system. Following the widespread disruption to vaccination programs during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, coverage of the third dose of the DTP vaccine (DTP3) is starting to catch up to 2019 levels, increasing from 81% in 2021 to 84% in 2022, but not quite reaching pre-pandemic coverage of 86%. Further, almost half of all nations have yet to reach the 90% coverage target endorsed at the 2012 World Health Assembly.
Still, there is good news, and Exemplars research in vaccine delivery is helping to shine a light on how countries are improving coverage of these life-saving immunizations.
Our recently published research from Senegal shows that targeted and adaptive approaches to improving community access were key to?increasing vaccination coverage in the country, helping DTP3 coverage dramatically increase from 54% in 1986 to 95% in 2019. Improved facility readiness and intent to vaccinate also contributed to this growth. One clever tactic utilized to improve community access: outreach to missed populations took place around high-traffic areas like schools and mosques and offered services during extended hours. One national-level stakeholder described this as a key to success:
It also dawned on us that the parents did not refuse the vaccination but that they were rather busy [with] their daily occupations. It is our duty to go to the populations when they are available, and not the other way around.
I hope you explore our latest vaccine delivery research coming out of Senegal, brought to you by our partners at the Institut de Recherche en Santé, de Surveillance épidémiologique et de Formation (IRESSEF), the Georgia Institute of Technology, Emory University, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
And we look forward to sharing more research soon, including a deep dive into vaccine delivery in Nepal coming later this year.
Exemplars Stories
A 471-item checklist is improving patient safety at health facilities across the country.?
Dr. Moussa Sarr and Mr. Daouda Gueye share how Senegal leveraged existing programmatic strengths to mitigate COVID-19’s impacts on routine immunizations early in the pandemic.
Dr. Heidi Reynolds, a Senior Specialist for Evaluation and Learning at Gavi, discusses past successes and learnings that can improve immunization programs in the future.