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* Atleast Project Title is Required.
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Project No. |
HWG 03 2011A
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Project Title |
APEC Workshop on Influenza Vaccine Policies and Strategies in Post-Pandemic Era
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Project Status |
Completed Project
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Publication (if any) |
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Fund Account |
APEC Support Fund
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Sub-fund |
ASF: Avian Influenza
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Project Year |
2011
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Project Session |
Session 2
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APEC Funding |
66,883
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Co-funding Amount |
103,437
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Total Project Value |
170,320
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Sponsoring Forum |
Health Working Group (HWG)
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Topics |
Health
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Committee |
SOM Steering Committee on Economic and Technical Cooperation (SCE)
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Other Fora Involved |
Not Applicable / Other
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Other Non-APEC Stakeholders Involved |
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Proposing Economy(ies) |
Chinese Taipei
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Co-Sponsoring Economies |
China; Korea; Peru; Thailand; Viet Nam
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Expected Start Date |
08/07/2011
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Expected Completion Date |
31/12/2012
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Project Proponent Name 1 |
Feng-Yee Chang
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Job Title 1 |
Director-General
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Organization 1 |
Centers for Disease Control
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Postal Address 1 |
No. 6, Linshen South Road, Taipei 10050
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Telephone 1 |
+886 2 23918508
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Fax 1 |
+886 2 2391854
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Email 1 |
fychang@cdc.gov.tw
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Project Proponent Name 2 |
Not Applicable
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Job Title 2 |
Not Applicable
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Organization 2 |
Not Applicable
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Postal Address 2 |
Not Applicable
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Telephone 2 |
Not Applicable
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Fax 2 |
Not Applicable
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Email 2 |
Not Applicable
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Declaration |
Not Applicable
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Project Summary |
This project is designed to help member economies to formulate more effective influenza vaccination policies and strategies in the post pandemic periods and help enhance information and experience sharing in terms of influenza vaccine policies and strategies through lecture, scenario practice and group discussion. The workshop will be divided into different sessions, including “Vaccine Stockpiling”, “Vaccination Program Implementation”, “Surveillance of Vaccine Adverse Reactions” and “Public Communication”. Each session will focus on the topic with the view to achieving the objectives set forth for the workshop. Comments from participants will be collected as a reference for future development.
The workshop will be held in Chinese Taipei in June 2012. Approximately, 50-60 participants from all APEC economies will be invited to attend. All workshop documents will be submitted to the HWG Secretariat and uploaded to the HWG website. The evaluation report reflecting the lessons learned and experience gained by APEC economies will be formulated and submitted to the HWG.
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Relevance |
One lesson we all learned from our response to the 2009-2010 H1N1 pandemic is that when a new influenza virus emerges, even with tremendous amount of control efforts in place, casualties and public panic will still be inevitable. Therefore, the need for more comprehensive preparedness plans is crucial to future pandemic influenza control.
Vaccines are proven to be one of the most effective ways to protect people from contracting illness during influenza epidemics and pandemics. More than half of the APEC member economies launched an H1N1 influenza vaccination program against the pandemic in late 2009 or early 2010. According to a research conducted in Chinese Taipei, the high vaccination coverage rate among students aged 6–18 (74.7%) have contributed to the rapid mitigation and subsequent cessation of the H1N1 outbreak in Chinese Taipei in 2009. A similar research for children under 5 years old was also conducted in Japan. The result shows that flu vaccination can decrease the hospitalization rate for children aged between 6 months and 5 years to 80%.
However, with the occurrence of vaccine adverse reactions, the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine safety were questioned by the public, which led to the loss of public confidence in the vaccination policies and decreased the public’s willingness to be vaccinated. As a result, problems such as an oversupply of vaccines and non-immunized people developing serious illness arised in many APEC economies. The economic and social losses have undeniably affected the prosperity of the APEC region as a whole.
Now the H1N1 pandemic has entered the post-pandemic period as declared by WHO on August 10, 2010. This does not mean that the pandemic H1N1 virus has disappeared as the virus will continue to circulate like the seasonal influenza virus for years to come, resulting in outbreaks of different sizes. Providing vaccine and prompt administration of antiviral drugs are necessary measures against a pandemic. Therefore, considering the urgent need for APEC economies to take appropriate actions against a potential pandemic, Chinese Taipei would like to propose this project in order to help member economies to formulate more effective vaccination policies and strategies for the next pandemic wave.
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Objectives |
Vaccines are proven to be one of the most effective ways to protect people from contracting illness during influenza epidemics and pandemics. The 2009-2010 H1N1 pandemic did not only severely test APEC member economies’ capacity for medical crisis management, but also impacted the vaccine industry and market development. The economic and social losses have undeniably affected the prosperity of the APEC region as a whole. There are three key objectives of the project:
¨ To formulate more effective vaccination policies and strategies through exchange of information and sharing of experience. All APEC economies are welcomed to attend and we expect at least 2/3 of APEC economies will take part in the workshop.
¨ To identify the major challenges and constraints in APEC economies’ vaccination program and to enhance APEC member economies’ capacity of pandemic preparedness in the post-pandemic periods. Some of the successful examples and best practices in implementing vaccination programs from a number of APEC economies will be shared and discussed.
¨ To create an expert network on formulation and implementation of vaccination policies and strategies, we will collect all moderators, speakers, experts and participants’ contact information and their professional specialties. This expert list will be provided to all participants and uploaded to the HWG website. Through utilizing this expert network, sustained sharing of expertise to formualte effective vaccination policies and strategies will be achieved. In addition, cooperation and coordination among APEC economies will be strengthened.
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Alignment |
The project is designed in response to the 2008 APEC Leaders’ Declaration, the leaders agreed to build regional capacity to minimize health-related threats, including avian and human influenza pandemics. At the 2009 Leaders’ Declaration, the leaders agreed to welcome the sharing of experiences in dealing with the double global impact of the economic crisis and the Influenza Pandemic (H1N1) in 2009”. In addition, this project is also a response to the 2010 APEC Ministerial Meeting. At the meeting, the ministers agreed to welcome “efforts by the Health Working Group (HWG) to improve the capacity of APEC economies to respond to emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases of pandemic potential”.
One of the priorities cited in the 2010 Health Working Group workplan is “Enhancing preparedness for and response to public health threats, including avian and human pandemic influenza and vector borne diseases”. In addition, this project is a direct response to the APEC HWG medium term workplan (2010 – 2015) as it aims at enhancing preparedness for and effective management of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, vector-borne diseases, HIV/AIDS and pandemics. This project will help achieve this priority by formulating more effective vaccination strategies and policies against influenza pandemic in the post-pandemic periods.
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TILF/ASF Justification |
APEC Support Funds are available in the specific areas, such as human security, avian influenza and pandemics etc. This project is seeking the source of funding from APEC Support Fund. It is designed to facilitate the exchange of the lessons learned from the 2009 H1N1 pandemic and help APEC’s developing member economies to formulate more effective influenza vaccination policies and strategies in the post pandemic period. It will discuss several important issues such as “Vaccine Stockpiling”, “Vaccination Program Implementation”, “Surveillance of Vaccine Adverse Reactions” and “Public Communication” to strengthen and promote member economies’ capacities to respond to the next flu pandemic.
This project will improve APEC’s developing member economies’ capacity building on formulation and implementation of vaccination policies and strategies for the next pandemic wave, especially for the ones that faced the outbreak of Influenza Pandemic (H1N1) in 2009, but had not developed effective vaccination policies and strategies. In this workshop, some of the successful examples and best practices in implementing vaccination programs from a number of APEC economies will be shared and discussed, which will assist the developing economies to identify major challenges and constrains in their economies and enhance their capacity of pandemic preparedness in the post pandemic period. As a result, they will be able to get maximum benefit of vaccination out of limited financial and manpower resources. Moreover, the expert network established from the workshop will enable the developing economies to consult and exchange information with other experts who are from developed economies and other international organizations when applying the knowledge and information acquired during the workshop. Further, any suggestion and recommendation could be exchanged even after the workshop through the expert network. We believe that this project will benefit APEC’s developing members directly in terms of taking appropriate actions against a potential pandemic.
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Beneficiaries and Outputs |
The intended direct beneficiaries of this project are government officials, multi-level health policy makers, academic researchers, non-governmental agencies and other stakeholders, especially those who are in charge of formulation and implementation of pandemic vaccination policies and strategies. Through sharing information and exchanging experience in this workshop, participants can identify the major challenges and constrains in their vaccination programs and enhance their capacity of pandemic preparedness in the post-pandemic era. In addition, taking full advantage of the expert network can strengthen cooperation and coordination among APEC economies.
The indirect beneficiaries are people who are vulnerable to influenza infection; the people in high risk groups who should be vaccinated against influenza, including children, women and elderly people, will be indirectly benefited if the participating economies can set up effective vaccination policies and strategies that they have learned from the workshop.
Some of the successful examples and best practices in implementing vaccination programs from a number of APEC economies will be shared and discussed at the workshop. This will assist the project beneficiaries to identify the major challenge and constrains in their economies and enhance their capacity of pandemic preparedness in the post pandemic periods.
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Dissemination |
A project report, including well-edited workshop materials and the assessment of the project, will be submitted to the HWG. Those materials will be prepared in hard copies and the electronic publications will be released in about 50-60 copies of CD-ROM (digital).
The training material and workshop document will be provided to the target audience, which include APEC representatives from government officials, multi-level health policy makers, academic researchers, non-governmental agencies and other stakeholders, especially those who are in charge of formulation and implementation of pandemic vaccination policies and strategies. The participants are encouraged to make the maximum use of the training materials. They can duplicate the CD and share it with the experts in their economies. In addition, participants can use this expert network to exchange their revised vaccination policies and strategies that they develop for their economies. They can use this network to consult with other economies for suggestions and experience. We will update the expert list and related information about vaccination policies and strategies frequently on the HWG website as we receive feedback from participants. All workshop documents will be uploaded to the HWG website. The final report will comply with the APEC publications and logo guidelines and copyrights and be submitted to APEC Secretariat after the workshop.
We have no intention to sell outputs arising from this project.
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Gender |
Women and men are encouraged to attend this workshop equally. However, women’s role in this workshop is particular emphasized. Chinese Taipei will consult women experts and invite as many women as possible to be speakers or delegates at the workshop. According to the WHO’s advice, it is recommended that people in high-risk groups be vaccinated against H1N1, including pregnant women. Therefore, the vaccination policies and strategies regarding to pregnant women will also be discussed at the workshop
Chinese Taipei will also consult the GFPN members during the planning stage to ensure specific arrangement for women’s involvement.
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Work Plan |
The project consists of a 3-day workshop, which will be held in Chinese Taipei in June 2012. The project includes three stages:
1. Preparation: (July 2011-July 2012):
(1). Establish a planning team and assign responsibilities
(2) Identify speakers and send invitation letters
(3) Send invitation letters and Administration Circular to all APEC members
(4) Prepare workshop documents,
During the preparation of the project, the co-sponsoring economies, related agencies (Ministry of Health, FDA, CDC and vaccine center) from the host economy and co-sponsoring economies will be consulted to develop the proposed workshop. In addition, experts from the APEC regions will be consulted and invited as either speakers or participants.
2. Implementation: (June 2012)
(1) Format: lecture, scenario practice and group discussion.
(2) The workshop will be divided into different sessions, including “Vaccine Stockpiling”, “Vaccination Program Implementation”, “Surveillance of Vaccine Adverse Reactions” and “Public Communication”. Each session will focus on the topic with the view to achieving the objectives set up for the workshop. The agenda, participant list, training materials and conference documents will distributed to all participants in the conference.
(3) Participants: 50-60.
It is expected to have 2 delegates suggested by each member economy to attend the conference. The participants will include government officials, multi-level health policy makers, academic researchers, non-governmental agencies and other stakeholders, especially those who are in charge of formulation and implementation of pandemic vaccination policies and strategies. The experts from WHO and other international organizations will be invited to attend the workshop. We will keep in close touch with the APEC Secretariat for advice on non-member participation. We will ensure the non-member participation guidelines are closely followed.
3. Evaluation: (July 2012):
(1) Conduct a questionnaire survey of the workshop
(2) Formulate an evaluation report to the HWG after implementing the conference.
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Risks |
Risk1: Selected topics might not meet the needs of all HWG members.
Solution: We conduct ongoing consultation with HWG members during the preparation stage. And, we also provide the updated agenda and related information of the workshop to HWG members for their opinions.
Risk2: Unexpected diseases or natural disaster happens before or during the workshop period.
Solution: If an unexpected disaster happens before the workshop, we will consult with the APEC Secretariat and all APEC economies to decide whether the workshop should proceed. After considering the threat of the disaster and opinions from the APEC Secretariat and all APEC members, the decision whether the workshop should be postponed or held on time will be made. Moreover, a well-organized preparedness plan for unexpected disasters will be formulated during the planning stage of the workshop. The local emergency units and polices department will be consulted in order to provide a safe environment for all participants.
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Monitoring and Evaluation |
The project will follow the APEC’s guideline and regulation. The organizer will work closely with co-sponsor economies during the planning and implementing stages of the project. We will set up strict internal timeline of actions for the project, which includes time, activity, output, deadline, person in charge, etc. Review meetings will be held frequently during the planning and implementing stages to ensure the information of the workshop that participants receive is appropriate to their needs.
We will collect the training materials, including their abstract, power points slides, research and publications from all moderators and speakers. The contact information and participants list will also be collected and provided to all participants. That information will facilitate participating member economies in further applications of the knowledge and information acquired during the workshop.
A questionnaire survey of the workshop will be conducted and collected during the workshop. The evaluation report reflecting the lessons and experience among APEC member economies will be formulated and submitted to the HWG and uploaded to APEC HWG website.
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Linkages |
During the preparation of the project, we will engage the co-sponsoring economies, related agencies such as Ministry of Health, FDA, CDC and vaccine centers. Experts from WHO and other international organizations will be invited to be either moderators or speakers for this workshop. Representatives from the Life Sciences Innovation Forum （ LSIF ） and the Emergency Preparedness Working Group (EPWG) will also be consulted in order to provide a well-structured training program.
Enhancing preparedness for and response to public health threats, including avian and human pandemic influenza is one of the priority areas of APEC HWG. In recent years, the APEC economies had held many seminars focusing on animal outbreak control such as APEC Capacity Building Workshop on Vaccination Against Avian Influenza (Viet Nam, 2010), Leveraging Advances in Health IT to Prevent and Combat the Spread of Avian Influenza and Other Infectious Diseases (the United States, 2009), Development of an Information Platform for Avian Influenza (AI) Community Management and Engagement (China, 2008), etc.
In the past years, the issue of avian influenza was widely discussed during the APEC HWG forum. Differing from the above-mentioned seminars, this workshop will focus specifically on human pandemic influenza. Chinese Taipei previously conducted several APEC conferences successfully, including the 2008 APEC Workshop for the Control Practice of Dengue Fever and the 2009 APEC Conference for the Surveillance, Treatment, Laboratory Diagnosis and Vaccine Development of Enterovirus. We will fully utilize this advantage to provide a well-organized workshop for APEC economies. In addition, during the planning stage, we will consult with economies that have conducted successful workshop on avian influenza vaccination. From their experience and workshop summary reports, we will learn how to meet most workshop participants’ needs and expectations. We strongly believe that through effective communication, major challenges and constrains in APEC economies’ vaccination program, especially those in the developing economies, can be identified.
The project meets the priorities of APEC Leaders declaration and APEC HWG workplan. For many years, APEC Leaders and Ministers have placed high priority on building regional capacity to minimize health-related threats, including avian and human influenza pandemics. This project is a direct response to the APEC HWG medium term workplan (2010 – 2015) as it aims to enhance preparedness for and effective management of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, vector-borne diseases, HIV/AIDS and pandemics. During the H1N1 pandemic in 2009-2010, an oversupply of vaccines and non-immunized people developing serious illness arised in many APEC economies. The economic and social losses have undeniably affected the prosperity of the APEC region as a whole. This project will help APEC member economies to formulate more effective vaccination strategies and policies against influenza pandemic in the post-pandemic periods. Therefore, APEC is the most appropriate platform to fund the project.
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Sustainability |
During the workshop, significant progress will be made in improving risk communication and capacity building that will help member economies to formulate more effective vaccination policies and strategies for the next pandemic wave. Through collecting all moderators, speakers, experts and participants’ contact information and their professional specialties, an expert list can be generated and provided to all participants and uploaded to the HWG website. Through utilizing this expert network, sustained sharing of expertise to formualte effective vaccination policies and strategies will be achieved. In addition, cooperation and coordination among APEC economies will be strengthened. As some of the successful examples and best practices in implementing vaccination programs from a number of APEC economies will be shared and discussed at the workshop, participants can apply the knowledge and information learned from the workshop to develop more suitable vaccination policies and strategies for their own economies. Chinese Taipei will pay close attention to the progress in formualting vaccination policies and strategies and provide the participants with the necessary assistace.
After the workshop, participants can use this expert network to exchange their revised vaccination policies and strategies that they develop for their economies. They can also use this network to consult with other economies for suggestions and experience. We will update the expert list and related information about vaccination policies and strategies frequently on the HWG website as we receive feedback from particiapnts.
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Project Overseers |
Dr. Chang is currently the director of Centers for Disease Control, which is the authority responsible for the prevention and control of infectious diseases in Chinese Taipei. He received his MD degree in 1983 and his PhD degree in Medical Sciences in 1991 from National Defense Medical Center (NDMC) in Chinese Taipei. During 1994-1996, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pittsburgh in the United States.
Dr, Chang is also a Professor at the Department of Internal Medicine, NDMC since 2002 to present. His areas of expertise include infectious diseases, nosocomial infection and healthcare quality.
Contact person
Hui-Yi Chien (Ivy)
Program Coordinator
Centers for Disease Control
1st Division (Planning and International Affairs)
Tel: +886 2 23579861 Fax: +886 2 23920190
E-mail: ivy0311@cdc.gov.tw
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Cost Efficiency |
APEC fund is available for two participants from each APEC travel-eligible economy in order to encourage all APEC member economies to attend this important workshop for sharing their experience and information on preparedness plan for influenza vaccine policies and strategies. The funding we have procured from APEC is mainly travel fund for APEC travel-eligible economy and speakers’ honorarium. We will keep in close touch with the APEC Secretariat until the project is completed, to minimize the risk of incurring disallowable expenses or budget overrun. The funding will follow the APEC regulation strictly.
Hard copies of the workshop materials will be prepared and distributed at the workshop. After the workshop, all well-edited training materials and conference documents will be stored in a CD format and distributed to all participants. It will facilitate participating member economies in further applications of the knowledge and information acquired during the conference. The participants are encouraged to make the maximum use of the training materials. They can duplicate the CD and share it with the experts in their economies who can also get the same updated information and knowledge on vaccination policies and strategies. All the workshop documents will also be uploaded to the WHG website.
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Drawdown Timetable |
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Direct Labour |
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Waivers |
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Are there any supporting document attached? |
No
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Attachments
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