RV1 is effective in young Armenian children and substantially reduced rotavirus hospitalizations shortly after introduction.

determine associations between the preferred feeding choices and the factors affecting the decisions.Results: The findings revealed good knowledge (60%) of the infant feeding options among the respondents. About 42.9% of the women felt the counsellors were not convinced to certain limit which method was best, hence they not confidently guide them on the correct options. The adoption of infant feeding options as recommended by WHO was not optimal. Reasons included deterrents like financial limitations in 36.9% of respondents which was statistically significant at the bivariate (p= <0.001) and multivariate (p=0.013, odds ratio = 32.779) levels. This showed that respondents with financial constraints were 32 times less likely to practice the ideal feeding options than women who are not financially constrained. Also, sociocultural norms and beliefs in 40%, and the knowledge of risks associated with some feeding practices (38.5%) statistically significant (p=0.022 and 0.023 at bivariate and multivariate levels respectively). In the course of feeding their children, the respondents had challenges of insufficient breast milk, stigma and discrimination, among others.Conclusion: High proportions of respondents know the recommended infant feeding options, though the adoption of, and adherence to the ideal methods is not practiced. Sociocultural norms, fear of stigma, discrimination, and financial constraints affect their ability to do so. It is recommended that effective counselling services should be made available to HIV positive women in the hospital by trained hospital personnel to guide such women on making correct choices.

Pneumonia and diarrhea are the leading causes of child morbidity and mortality globally and are vaccine preventable. The WHO-coordinated Global Rotavirus and Invasive Bacterial Vaccine-Preventable Disease Surveillance Networks support surveillance systems across WHO regions to provide burden of disease data for countries to make evidence-based decisions about introducing vaccines and to demonstrate the impact of vaccines on disease burden. These surveillance networks help fill the gaps in data in low and middle-income countries where disease burden and risk are high but support to sustain surveillance activities and generate data is low. Through a series of country case studies, this paper reviews the successful use of surveillance data for disease caused by pneumococcus and rotavirus in informing national vaccine policy in Bangladesh, Armenia and The Gambia. The case studies delve into ways in which countries are leveraging and building capacity in existing surveillance infrastructure to monitor other diseases of concern in the country. Local institutions have been identified to play a critical role in making surveillance data available to policymakers. We recommend that countries review local or regional surveillance data in making vaccine policy decisions. Documenting use of surveillance activities can be used as advocacy tools to convince governments and external funders to invest in surveillance and make it a priority immunization activity.

A retrospective analysis was conducted of human cases and outbreaks of tularemia in the Republic of Armenia from 1996 to 2012 utilizing geographic information system software. A total of 266 human cases of tularemia were recorded in Armenia from 1996 to 2012, with yearly incidence ranging from 0 to 5.5 cases per 100,000 people. Cases predominantly affected the male population (62.8%), 11-20 year age group (37.2%), agricultural workers (49.6%), and persons residing in rural areas (93.6%). In 2003, a waterborne outbreak involving 158 cases occurred in Kotayk Marz, and in 2007, a foodborne outbreak with 17 cases occurred in Gegharkunik Marz, attributed to exposure of food products to contaminated hay. Geospatial analysis of all cases showed that the majority were associated with the steppe vegetation zone, elevations between 1,400 and 2,300 m, and the climate zone associated with dry, warm summers, and cold winters. Characterization of these environmental factors were used to develop a predictive risk model to improve surveillance and outbreak response for tularemia in Armenia.

Malaria control and preventive activities in the countries of the World Health Organization Region for Europe (WHO/EUR) were strengthened within the framework of the Regional Roll Back Malaria strategy adopted by the member-states at the beginning of the 2000s. A political document “From control to malaria elimination” known as the “Tashkent Declaration” was unanimously endorsed by the member-states of the WHO/EUR with malaria problems in 2005. Since then, considerable progress has been achieved in the countries of the region, signified by the dramatic reduction of malaria incidence in conjunction with the prevention of re-establishment of infection on the territories where malaria was eliminated earlier. Several countries of the region had been certified by the WHO as free of local malaria transmission as a result of the activities of their National Malaria Elimination Programme, Armenia being one of the first in 2011. One of the main lessons learnt during the implementation of the activities by the National Malaria Elimination Programme in Armenia was that the development of an operational plan for malaria elimination required a comprehensive national effort. Full support, both political and financial, from the highest levels of government to smooth coordination between different government ministries, such as Agriculture, Defense, Finance, Health and Policy and Planning and others, was a prerequisite for operational success. The role and place of various partners in the achievement of malaria elimination in the country is discussed in this review. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12936-019-2814-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.