Report of a meeting of the Working Group on Vaccine Quality and Sustainability of Immunization Programs in the NIS and Baltic Countries 12-13 November 1997 Berlin.

This trip report provides a summary of a consultant meeting held during November 12-13 1997 and the resulting recommendations. The meeting aimed to establish and strengthen national vaccine quality control achieve vaccine self-sufficiency and evaluate the current status of diphtheria control in the Newly Independent States (NIS) and Baltic region. The BASICS consultant attended a meeting by the World Health Organization Europe in order to make a technical presentation on monitoring for effective use of resources. The full text is included in the appendices along with a provisional agenda and list of working papers participant list paper on sustainability of immunization programs and recommendations and data on vaccine donation procurement of vaccines for public sector programs and control and quality control within the procurement process. Participants included managers of immunization programs from NIS and Baltic countries. It is recommended that sustainability of a national immunization program will be ensured by national vaccine supply plans that identify the financial basis of the program with the assumption that outsider donor support will decline. The plan should indicate the supply of vaccines and materials and quality by source as well as all aspects of immunization delivery. Each country should include a legally constituted National Control Authority with responsibility for overseeing the quality of vaccines in the national program. The consultant recommended a well-designed monitoring system for the immunization program that would motivate staff to detect and solve problems and improve individual performance and encouraged the formation of a working group to include health staff at various levels to design test revise and introduce this monitoring system.