Volume 28, Supplement—December 2022
SUPPLEMENT ISSUE
Clinical
Leveraging HIV Program and Civil Society to Accelerate COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake, Zambia
Patricia Bobo, Jonas Z. Hines
, Roma Chilengi, Andrew F. Auld, Simon G. Agolory, Andrew Silumesii, and John Nkengasong
, Roma Chilengi, Andrew F. Auld, Simon G. Agolory, Andrew Silumesii, and John Nkengasong
Table
Lessons learned from leveraging HIV programs to support COVID-19 vaccination, Zambia*
| Pillar | Lessons |
|---|---|
| Planning and coordination |
•Leverage existing in-country systems/programs/resources for COVID-19 vaccination. •Engage national, provincial, and district health bodies from the outset. •Develop district-level microplans based on standard tools that are approved at provincial and national levels. •Use joint planning by Ministry of Health, funding organizations, and provincial representatives. •Establish centralized M&E tools for national tracking of progress. •Begin with a small pilot in a few sites and rapidly iterate to improve quality, using a continuous quality-improvement approach. •Scale-up successful practices rapidly to quickly enhance effect. •Develop targets that can be implemented and achieved by lower levels (i.e., district health offices, service delivery teams). |
| Service delivery |
•Adequately capacitate HCWs in HIV, MCH, and other clinics to deliver COVID-19 vaccines. •Invest in community mobilization and service delivery to overcome limits of a static service delivery approach and reach the greatest number of eligible persons, which means offering vaccines at public places (e.g., markets, malls, churches), chiefdoms, workplaces, congregate settings, and others. •Use existing community health services for HIV as vaccination points. •Anticipate additional human resource needs, and ensure adequate financial resources to support them. |
| Demand generation |
•Ensure adequate HCW training in HIV and other clinics to answer patients’ and eligible family members’ questions about COVID-19 vaccines. •Encourage HCWs themselves to get vaccinated against COVID-19 by creating a safe space for unvaccinated HCWs to have their questions answered. •Engage public and private media nationally to address myths and misconceptions about COVID-19 vaccines. •Develop promotional materials that emphasize the value of COVID-19 vaccination for persons living with HIV because of the elevated risk for severe illness among members of this group. •Engage civil society (community, traditional, religious, and business leaders) to champion COVID-19 vaccination. Listen to and address their concerns about COVID-19 vaccines. •Use routine patient reminder call for upcoming visits to share information about vaccine availability in HIV clinics. |
| M&E |
•Harmonize COVID-19 vaccine data collection in HIV and other clinics with the national COVID-19 vaccine M&E system. •Conduct frequent data analysis to inform site-level performance assessments and guide targeted quality improvement. •Generate feedback loops, particularly for poorly performing districts. |
| Logistics |
•Push adequate vaccine supplies to each district based on their estimated target populations with the microplan. •Take inventory of health facility capacity to adequately store COVID-19 vaccines, and use existing infrastructure where possible. •Ensure that HIV clinic vaccine supply is incorporated into the wider health facility request. |
| Safety | •Provide AEFI training to HCWs. •Strengthen AEFI reporting system within HIV clinics. |
*AEFI, adverse event following immunization; HCW, healthcare worker; MCH, maternal and child health; M&E, monitoring and evaluation.
Page created: October 11, 2022
Page updated: December 11, 2022
Page reviewed: December 11, 2022
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