Description
Malaria is known to be the biggest killer and cause of hospital admissions in sub-Saharan Africa (WHO 2023), and three countries, Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, have introduced the new RSS,S/AS01 four-dose vaccine to prevent malaria infection. Ghana has reported good coverage rates, but a significant drop off has been observed between the third and fourth doses (MVIP, 2022) which compromises the efficacy of the vaccine and decreases population immunity (Samuel et al, 2022).
In partnership with Ghana Health Service (GHS) and support from Gavi – The Vaccine Alliance, Simprints Technology Ltd (www.simprints.com) has deployed its biometrically-enhanced digital tools in Ghana to support vaccination campaigns and increase coverage rates (WEF, 2023). Communities have reported high acceptance of biometrics as a means of safely and reliably managing unique ID, and healthworkers have reported significant savings of time and effort.
As the solution now moves to scale, GHS includes Simprints’ unique capability to use biometrics as a secure and private means of identifying children as young as nine months old in low-resource settings to ensure appointments for the fourth dose vaccination are made and kept. With ongoing support from Gavi, and also from ARM and the Steele Foundation For Hope, more than 500,000 children will be reached, demand forecast optimised and vaccine wastage minimised.
This talk will present the results of the program so far, and discuss the community consultations which preceded the deployment of biometrics, and the ongoing support to healthworkers which drove adoption. It will look at challenges experienced and anticipated in preparation for sustainable national scale, and highlight the applicability of the solution across the full routine immunisation and primary healthcare digital landscape in Ghana
Sources
Malaria Vaccine Implementation Program MVIP (2022) 'MVIP - Ghana's Experience', Available at: hsps://tdr.who.int/docs/librariesprovider10/rtss-webinar/4_en_ghana-update(24-feb-2022)_ghana-epi-slides.pdf?sfvrsn=947f5477_5
Samuels, A., Ansong, D., Kariuki, S., Adjei, S., Bollaerts, A., Ockenhouse, C., Westerc amp, N., Lee, C. and Schuerman, L. (2022) 'Efficacy of RTS,S/AS01.sub.E malaria vaccine', The Lancet Infectious Diseases,
World Economic Forum (WEF) (2023) ‘What are biometrics and how can they help tackle malaria’, Available at: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/09/what-are-biometrics-and-how-can-they-help-tackle-malaria/
World Health Organisation (WHO) (2023) ‘World Malaria Report, 2023’, Available at: https://www.who.int/teams/global-malaria-programme/reports/world-malaria-report-2023
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