Pandemic Vaccine Deployment Workshop, Dushanbe, Tajikistan, 30 April–2 May 2019

Overview

The 2009 H1N1 pandemic demonstrated that the global community was faced with several challenges in responding to this health emergency. Major constraints included an inability to assess the severity of the pandemic, failure to effectively communicate risks and recommended actions, and inadequate planning for procurement and deployment of the pandemic vaccines, leading to delays in offering vaccination services to populations at risk.

To counteract potential bottlenecks in the deployment of pandemic products and the vaccination of populations in need, WHO advocates that each country should develop a National Deployment and Vaccination Plan (NDVP) which will ensure operational readiness for such activities. In order to support Member States to strengthen their pandemic preparedness and response capacity through development of NDVPs, WHO launched a series of training activities with the first workshop on Pandemic Influenza Vaccine Deployment for countries of the WHO Americas Region in February 2019.