Globally, many countries are facing a broad range of humanitarian emergencies resulting from various hazards, which differ in scale, complexity and consequences. Emergencies may lead to major and possibly continuous disruption of vaccination services provided through primary health care, resulting in a significant drop in vaccination coverage. This may lead to a decrease in population immunity, and increased morbidity and mortality from vaccine-preventable diseases with potential risks for outbreaks. Vaccination should be among the high-priority health interventions implemented to limit the avoidable morbidity and mortality due to Vaccine Preventable diseases. Maintaining or re-establishing routine vaccination services should be the primary objective of every national immunization programme during humanitarian emergencies.
Learning objectives:
The objectives of this online resource are to facilitate:
- the understanding and encourage the use of two documents: Vaccination in Humanitarian Emergencies: An Implementation Guide; and Vaccination in Acute Humanitarian Emergencies: A Framework for Decision Making;
- provides guidance to decision makers and health workers in charge of planning and managing routine or additional vaccination service delivery in a humanitarian emergency context; and
- show the importance of being responsible and proactive when faced with such emergency situations.
After completing these modules, participants will be able to:
- define an acute humanitarian emergency,
- describe the roles and responsibilities of key partners and stakeholders in emergency responses related to immunization,
- access and use the decision-making framework for vaccination in humanitarian emergencies online tool and its complementary resources,
- list the steps and key considerations in planning and implementing a vaccination response in an emergency setting, and
- access complementary resources on emergency vaccination.