Technical Assistance to support the progress of Adverse Event Following Immunization Surveillance and Response at the Subnational Level

BACKGROUND

The Philippines has over 154 million COVID-19 doses administered after more than a year of vaccinating its population. While enormous efforts were made to ramp up the vaccination, the country continues to face challenges in reaching vulnerable and high-risk groups particularly in the resource-constrained areas. As DOH aims to generate demand and improve the COVID-19 vaccination and routine immunization uptake among the eligible population, it is crucial to ensure the availability of safe and effective vaccines to build the trust and confidence in the national immunization program.

There were significant developments in restoring the structure of AEFI surveillance and response at the national, regional and local level. The healthcare providers in the Philippines are increasingly becoming aware of the value of reporting AEFI. This is demonstrated by the high number of AEFI reports captured through Vigiflow and other AEFI reporting pathways established by the EB. Accordingly, the Philippines is the 9th top reporting country among those who use Vigiflow at the global level.

Given the number of reports that comes in, the serious AEFI reports that need investigation and causality assessment have accumulated. The investigators who gather pertinent information to build a strong case summary for causalty assessment need further capacity building to provide comprehensive case investigation output.

The Department of Health, through the Epidemiology Bureau (EB) and WHO support, aims to ensure that the end-to-end process of AEFI surveillance and response are implemented and monitored.

The Regional Epidemiology and Surveillace Units (RESUs) serve as a vital link between the central office and local health units. Therefore direct support should be provided to have a strategic implementation of the policies on the ground to make the AEFI surveillance system more efficient and effective. The development of the RESU in performing active surveillance and conducting clinical case investigations will gear towards a longer-term resolution to establish a comprehensive systemic surveillance and response for the AEFI at the subnational level.

The VDI unit in WHO Philippines has been supporting the DOH-EB to address the increased backlogs of cases for causality assessment as well as the cases that were put on-hold due to crude investigation and incomplete evidence. To ensure the sustainability of the support, it is important to continue the technical assistance from the Medical Officers at the subnational level to institutionalize a comprehensive and systematic AEFI reporting, investigation and causality assessment processes across the regions.

PURPOSE OF THE RFP

WHO requires the successful bidder, the Contractor, to carry out technical and operational assistance to support the progress of Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI) surveillance and response at the subnational level, under an Agreement for Performance of Work (APW) contract.

The overall objective of this assistance is to support the Department of Health – Epidemiology Bureau (DOH-EB) in strengthening the Regional Epidemiology Surveillance Units (RESU) capacity in conducting clinical case investigations and building strong case summaries towards an evidence-based causality assessment.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PROVIDER

Mandatory:

• • Proven experience in the field of public health, disease surveilance activities and project management. In coordination with DOH.
• • Previous work with WHO, other international organizations and/or major institutions in the field of immunization safety and has provided operational support through HR recruitment and overseeing the work output of the contracted personnel;

Desirable:

• • Experience in faciltity-based surveillance and health related research.

WORK TO BE PERFORMED

In coordination with the World Health Organization Philippine Country Office, the contractual partner/institution shall perform the following tasks/responsibilities in close collaboration with the respective offices within the DOH Epidemiology Bureau:

1. Recruit five medical officers that will be stationed at the regional hubs across the Philippines (North Luzon, South Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao)

2. Provide operational support to the medical officers when overseeing clinical case investigation and providing supportive supervision to the RESUs in building strong case summaries for Regional Adverse Events Following Immunization (RAEFIC) causality assessment.

• • Provide monthly operational support to the MOs that includes direct salary disbursements and per diem (as applicable). Salary and travel allowance will be based on the agreement between WHO CO PH, while the transportation cost will be provided based on the actual cost.
• • Support the telemedicine accessibility to the MOs in rendering immediate coordination to the ESUs in providing technical assistance on the clinical investigation of high impact AEFIs and case presentation to the National/Regional AEFI Committee in a clinical conference manner.

3. Support the collaboration efforts of the MOs among the investigational team, assigned RESUs and DOH-EB.

4. To provide technical support to the MOs in maintaining the monthly activity list and submission of progress reports.

5. In collaboration with WCO PHL VDI and DOH EB, to support the MOs in analyzing the AEFI surveillance process at the subnational level and in identifying the strengths and challenges of each region towards a targeted and sustainable capacity building activities.

6. Support the MOs in providing sound and innovative recommendations to the national and subnational level through their findings on the implementation of policies and evaluation of end-to-end processes of AEFI surveillance, investigation and causality assessment.

SUBMISSIONS

Qualified and interested bidders should access the bid document in In-Tend via 'Express Interest' and submit queries on or before 6 October 2022 

Deadline of proposal submission is on or before 13 October 2022, 17:00 GMT+ Manila time via In-Tend. Late submissions and proposals not submitted through In-Tend will not be accepted.

Please use Reference No. WPRO/DAF/SAO/SUP/P/0006794 as subject to all submission. Only successful candidates will be contacted.