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Activities

To help countries protect their populations from developing severe disease as a result of pandemic influenza H1N1 infection, WHO has helped to coordinate the distribution of donated pandemic influenza vaccine to 95 countries.Governments, foundations and manufacturers have offered contributions of vaccines, ancillary products (such as syringes and safety boxes) and funds to support the initiative.

In the European Region, eight countries are eligible to receive donated stockpiled vaccine: Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, the Republic of Moldova, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Each will receive pandemic vaccine to cover 10% of their population: a total of 11.5 million doses.

For a country to receive donated vaccine, it is required to request donated vaccines and sign an agreement accepting the terms and conditions of support. After this, it is expected to send a deployment plan to WHO/Europe, where a WHO regional team has been established to review and approve drafted and finalized national vaccine deployment plans. This step usually involves revision before plans are approved and forwarded to WHO headquarters. Plans are approved shortly after receipt by headquarters, and the shipment process is initiated.

In January 2010, Azerbaijan became the first country in the WHO European Region (and only the second in the world) to receive WHO stockpile donated vaccine.