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Polio Eradication Initiative contribution in strengthening immunization and integrated disease surveillance data management in WHO African region, 2014

Friday, 7th of October 2016 Print

Vaccine, Volume 34, Issue 43, 10 October 2016, Pages 5181–5186

Polio Eradication Initiative Best Practices in the WHO African Region

Polio Eradication Initiative contribution in strengthening immunization and integrated disease surveillance data management in WHO African region, 2014

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2016.05.057

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Under a Creative Commons license

  Open Access


Highlights

•GPEI made investments on data management in the eradication in polio in the Region.

•Impact of polio data management support to other programmes is not fully documented.

•Polio data management system were also used for other interventions.

•IDSR has improved the data availability with support from Polio funded data managers.


Excerpts below; full text is at

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X16303838

 

Abstract

Introduction

The PEI Programme in the WHO African region invested in recruitment of qualified staff in data management, developing data management system and standards operating systems since the revamp of the Polio Eradication Initiative in 1997 to cater for data management support needs in the Region. This support went beyond polio and was expanded to routine immunization and integrated surveillance of priority diseases. But the impact of the polio data management support to other programmes such as routine immunization and disease surveillance has not yet been fully documented. This is what this article seeks to demonstrate.

Methods

We reviewed how Polio data management area of work evolved progressively along with the expansion of the data management team capacity and the evolution of the data management systems from initiation of the AFP case-based to routine immunization, other case based disease surveillance and Supplementary immunization activities.

Results

IDSR has improved the data availability with support from IST Polio funded data managers who were collecting them from countries. The data management system developed by the polio team was used by countries to record information related to not only polio SIAs but also for other interventions. From the time when routine immunization data started to be part of polio data management team responsibility, the number of reports received went from around 4000 the first year (2005) to >30,000 the second year and to >47,000 in 2014.

Conclusion

Polio data management has helped to improve the overall VPD, IDSR and routine data management as well as emergency response in the Region. As we approach the polio end game, the African Region would benefit in using the already set infrastructure for other public health initiative in the Region.


1. Introduction

The need for quality data to support evidence-based decisions and actions is essential in any system [1]. This fact becomes even more evident when it comes to public health and especially in disease surveillance and immunization [2]. In order to have ensure standardized data availability and data quality, it is important to establish a system that is composed of necessary human resources, processes, materials and software for data collection, data collation, data cleaning and data triangulation, data validation, data quality, data analysis and information products sharing for use at different levels of the organization [3].

Many programmes within the World Health Organization, African Region (WHO-AFR) office and in countries have suffered from shortage of trained and skilled staff in the area of data management. This was amplified by the global economic crisis of 2008 which impacted negatively on WHO data management functions in programmes such as malaria and HIV/AIDS where were some critical functions like data management were forced to be abolished at the Regional Office and Inter-country Support Teams (ISTs) due to a diminished budget. Hence some of the functions were taken over by the Polio Data Management Team in ISTs to fill the gap.

Prior to the launching of Polio Eradication Initiative (PEI) along with a strong information management structure and processes, important challenges were also faced for both immunization and disease surveillance data in WHO-AFR [4]. Data timeliness and data completeness were not adequate with consequences on information availability, information quality and delay in decision-making.

With the need to monitor the progress of PEI, robust case based surveillance of Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) had to be put in place and could not meet its objective without an adequate data management system that included appropriate processes, systems, materials and human resources.

For this purpose the PEI Programme in the WHO African region invested in recruitment of qualified staff in data management, developing data management system and standards operating systems since the revamp of this programme in 1997 to cater for data management support needs in the Region. This support went beyond polio and was expanded to routine immunization and integrated surveillance of priority diseases.

Despite the fact that the influence of PEI on other infectious disease surveillance development has been documented by Nsubuga et al. [5], the impact of the polio data management support to other programmes such as routine immunization and disease surveillance has not yet been fully documented [6]. This article seeks to demonstrate the impact of the polio data management investment and support on strengthening integrated disease surveillance and routine immunization data management, quality and analysis for decision making as part of the polio legacy in the WHO African region [7], [8] and [9].

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