Presentations from the Technical Advisory Group Meeting (TAG) for Pakistan and Afghanistan in Cairo (2009)

This series of reports emerges from a meeting of the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on poliomyelitis eradication in Afghanistan and Pakistan, held in Cairo, Egypt, June 1-2 2009. Participants included the delegations of Afghanistan and Pakistan and representatives of the core partners: the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), WHO, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The objectives of the meeting were to review progress towards polio eradication in the 2 countries (particularly during 2008), to discuss planned activities for 2009, and to make recommendations to address constraints facing the national programmes on their way to achieve the target.

In brief, the TAG highlighted the progress made in both Pakistan and Afghanistan since its last meeting, particularly with regard to top-level government leadership, improvement in monitoring polio campaigns, and enhanced programme implementation in areas that had suffered importations, as well as in key reservoir areas. The TAG also noted the continued and strengthened cross-border collaboration between the two countries, as reflected by synchronised activities both for surveillance and campaigns, border meetings, immunisation at transit points, and the development of joint plans of action to overcome border issues. The TAG reinforced the strategy decision of the October 2008 consultation to maintain 6 rounds of nationwide vaccination with trivalent oral polio vaccine (tOPV), combined with supplementary national immunisation days (SNIDs) using monovalent OPVs (mOPVs), as appropriate, to interrupt viral circulation in reservoir areas. The TAG noted that, depending on the outcomes of a clinical trial that will be announced in the near future, it may be appropriate to replace up to 3 of the tOPV rounds with bivalent OPV (bOPV). Also, the TAG urged that cross-border collaboration should be further strengthened, that advances made in developing national and more localised communication activities should continue, and that both countries should continue to conduct annual internal and international reviews - establishing indicators to monitor and assess the impact of communication activities.

Presentations in PowerPoint format:

Pakistan:

Update on Polio Eradication in Pakistan and Future Strategies [PPT]

Epidemiological Situation in Pakistan [PPT]

Surveillance Quality in Pakistan [PPT]

Ensuring DCO Commitment for Polio Eradication [PPT]

Innovation in Communication – Pakistan [PPT]

Afghanistan:

Implementation of TAG Recommendations [PPT]

Epidemiological Situation in Afghanistan [PPT]

Strategic Partnership for Polio Eradication in Southern Region [PPT]

Surveillance Quality in Afghanistan [PPT]

Campaign Quality/ Monitoring Data in Afghanistan [PPT]

Polio Eradication Communication, Progress & Challenges - Afghanistan [PPT]

Also see the final meeting report, in Microsoft Word format:

Report on the Meeting of the Technical Advisory Group on Poliomyelitis Eradication in Afghanistan and Pakistan