A Practical Guide to Pilot Testing Community-Based Vaccination Coverage Surveys.

Pilot testing is crucial when preparing any community-based vaccination coverage survey. In this paper, we use the term to mean informative work conducted before a survey protocol has been finalized for the purpose of guiding decisions about how the work will be conducted. We summarize findings from seven pilot tests and provide practical guidance for piloting similar studies.

Reasons why children miss vaccinations in Western Kenya; A step in a five-point plan to improve routine immunization.

Global childhood vaccination coverage has stagnated over the past decade and raising coverage will require a collection of approaches since no single approach has been suitable for all countries or situations. The American Red Cross has developed a 5-Point Plan to geolocate under-vaccinated children and determine the reasons why they miss vaccination by capitalizing on the Red Cross Movement's large cadres of trusted community volunteers. The Plan was piloted in Bobasi sub-county in Western Kenya, with volunteers seeking to conduct a face-to-face interview in all households, visiting over 60,000 over 7 days.

Impact of routine vaccination against type b in The Gambia: 20 years after its introduction.

Background: In 1997, The Gambia introduced three primary doses of type b (Hib) conjugate vaccine without a booster in its infant immunisation programme along with establishment of a population-based surveillance on Hib meningitis in the West Coast Region (WCR). This surveillance was stopped in 2002 with reported elimination of Hib disease. This was re-established in 2008 but stopped again in 2010.

Global impact of rotavirus vaccine introduction on rotavirus hospitalisations among children under 5 years of age, 2008-16: findings from the Global Rotavirus Surveillance Network.

Background: Rotavirus vaccine use in national immunisation programmes has led to declines in hospital admissions for rotavirus gastroenteritis among children; however, the global impact of rotavirus vaccine introduction has not been described using primary data. We describe the impact of rotavirus vaccine introduction on admissions for acute rotavirus gastroenteritis in primarily low-income and middle-income countries, using 9 years of data from the WHO-coordinated Global Rotavirus Surveillance Network (GRSN).

Methods: Between Jan 1, 2008, and Dec 31, 2016, children younger than 5 years of age who were admitted to hospital with acute gastroenteritis were prospectively enrolled in GRSN sites.

Global invasive bacterial vaccine-preventable diseases surveillance--2008-2014.

Meningitis and pneumonia are leading causes of morbidity and mortality in children globally infected with Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus), Neisseria meningitidis, and Haemophilus influenzae causing a large proportion of disease. Vaccines are available to prevent many of the common types of these infections. S.