Context National Immunization Technical Advisory Groups (NITAGs) support political decision-makers in developing effective immunisation strategies. Experiences gained in previous projects have shown that NITAGs in middle-income countries (MICs) in the WHO European Region operate at varying levels. Together with the WHO Regional Office for Europe (WHO EURO), STEP seeks to…
Short Description The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the national health and care systems in hepatitis control. The need to reallocate resources and personnel, decreased accessibility to services, and temporarily reduced supplies of tests and medications are likely to have far-reaching consequences for other disease areas, including viral hepatitis.
Short Description National Immunisation Technical Advisory Groups (NITAGs) are multidisciplinary panels of national experts providing independent and evidence-based guidance to Ministries of Health on immunisation policies and vaccine use in the population. The main task of the NITAGs is to gather, review, evaluate and structure evidence on specific vaccination topics…
From 31 October to 4 November 2022, an RKI-team from the WHO Collaborating Center for Viral Hepatitis and HIV travelled to Yerevan, Armenia, for the project COVIMPACT Hepatitis “Assessing the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on viral hepatitis B and C elimination efforts in Eastern…
From 17 – 21 October 2022, the RKI organised a joint evaluation workshop for the GHPP project COVIMPACT Hepatitis “Assessing the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on viral hepatitis B and C elimination efforts in Eastern Europe and Central Asia”. Project partners from Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan from the…
National Immunization Technical Advisory Groups (NITAGs) are advisory bodies that develop recommendations for policy maker to support them in taking country-owned, evidence-based, and sustainable decisions on immunization policies. Long-standing NITAGs such as the German NITAG “STIKO”, the UK “Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation” (JCVI) or the US “Advisory Committee…
At the end of April 2022, a World Health Organization (WHO) mission with the participation of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) took place to Kyrgyzstan to assess the national hepatitis and HIV elimination programmes. This included consideration of the objectives for two Global…
During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic National Immunization Technical Advisory Groups (NITAGs) face various challenges: NITAGs normally develop recommendations based on a broad body of evidence. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, evidence needed to develop recommendations e.g. on risk factors for severe and fatal courses or effects of COVID-19 variants on…