Category

international

Polio roundtable event, Sydney March 2025

Polio Roundtable

On Thursday March 20th, SABII member Dr. Majdi Sabahelzain participated in a Polio Roundtable discussion held to commemorate the visit of Canadian polio advocate Ramesh Ferris to Australia, which brought together key stakeholders in polio advocacy and action in Australia.

The primary focus of the event was to strengthen Australia’s role in global polio eradication efforts, with representatives from Rotary, Global Citizen, Results Australia, NCIRS, and Polio Australia in attendance. The event featured a keynote address by Ramesh Ferris, who spoke about his journey and advocacy, global and regional progress towards polio eradication, and lessons learned from past successes.

Following the keynote, there was an informal Q&A session with Ramesh, and the event concluded with an open discussion among all participants that addressed the current status of polio eradication, the role of vaccination programs, challenges in reaching the last mile, a reflections on Australia’s role in eradication efforts, particularly with the recent decisions of the U.S. administration to withdraw from WHO and dismantle USAID.

Immunisation program review in Timor-Leste

Timor-Leste has succeeded in controlling several diseases, including polio, maternal and neonatal tetanus, and endemic measles and rubella.  The country has also introduced several new vaccines in recent years, mostly recently HPV vaccination in a very successful rollout. The Ministry of Health requested a joint national / international review of the Expanded Programme on Immunization and vaccine preventable disease surveillance system in Timor Leste (EPI review). The review also combined a post-introduction evaluation for pneumococcal conjugate vaccine and COVID-19 vaccine. The international review team included: Professor Julie Leask (SPH),  Dr Dijana Spasenoska, (WHO HQ), Dr Tondo Opute Emmanuel Njambe and Dr Sigrun Roesel (WHO SEARO), Dr Sarah Sheridan and Dr Ann Burton (NCIRS), Dr Monica Shah and Dr Michael Lynch (US CDC), Dr Jobayer Al Mamum (WHO Bangladesh), Dr Jeffrey Jap (East Nusa Tenggara PHO), Dr Khin Devi Aung (UNICEF EAPRO) and Dr Ratih Oktri Nanda (MoH Indonesia). It was coordinated by the World Health Organization HQ, Regional Office for Southeast Asia, and Timor Leste Country Office. 

This was an intense two weeks of fieldwork, debriefing and reporting held from 14th to 25th October. Seven teams comprising international reviewers, Ministry of Health staff, and WHO consultants visited 13 municipalities, 73 health facilities and did 14 national-level interviews. They synthesised findings and recommendations over two days and presented them to the Minister for Health, Hon Dr Élia António de Araújo dos Reis Amaral, her ministry, and key partners. 

The review recommended strengthening several areas: staff orientation and supportive supervision, updating and supply of guidelines and forms, waste management, strengthened cold chain monitoring, follow-up of missed children, outreach, coverage assessment, adverse events response, and strengthening the system for working with community volunteers. These build on many strengths, including the commitment and existing expertise of staff throughout the program. Detailed findings of this review will inform the National Immunisation Strategy, 2025-2029.