USAID Project Pilots Hib Vaccine in Vladivostok
With USAID support, the Vishnevskaya-Rostropovich Foundation (VRF) is piloting a vaccine for Haemophilus Influenzae Type B (Hib) in Vladivostok. The goal of the project is to get Hib added to the national immunization calendar, thus requiring health care providers to immunize children against the disease, which is a leading cause of severe infant meningitis.
On October 2-3, 2008, VRF held a training session in Vladivostok to improve laboratory diagnosis and treatment of Hib. U.S. Consul General Thomas Armbruster and officials from various regions were in attendance. As a result of VRF trainings, the share of meningitis cases in Vladivostok that have a known cause has drastically increased (from three percent to 60 percent), which significantly improves treatment outcomes.
Based on these results, VRF partners have drafted an official recommendation to include Hib in the national immunization calendar that will be submitted to Dr. Gennady Onishchenko, head of the Federal Service on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Well-Being (Rospotrebnazor). Dr. Onishchenko has expressed his support for expanding the training to other regions and VRF is in talks with companies, such as TOTAL, about leveraging private sector support for this expansion.
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| Participants in the VRF training on diagnosis of Hib in Vladivostok. |
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