The talk show became one of the information channels for young parents, adolescents and media representatives to get answers to their questions about immunization.

Ministry of Health and UNICEF experts talked about the National Calendar of Immunization, which covers vaccination against 10 infections for children aged 0 to 16 years old, latest immunization trends in Central Europe and CIS countries, shared global statistics, covered vaccine safety issues and informed public about the latest achievements of cooperation among the Ministry, UNICEF and World Health Organization (WHO).

“UNICEF provides great support in strengthening the routine immunization system in Uzbekistan,” - commented Dr. Dilorom Tursunova, Manager of the Extended Programme on Immunization of the Ministry of Health. “This support includes procurement of vaccines, including those for supplementary immunization purposes, and further development of vaccinators’ capacity, so they can provide quality services to population. All these activities take into account WHO recommendations.” - Dr. Tursunova said.

During the talk show, invited experts also talked about the project on “Increasing population demand for routine immunization services”, which is being implemented in 2012 with financial and technical support from UNICEF. The main focus of the project is working with various groups of population who do not fully understand the importance of immunization for protecting the life and health of a child.

“Strengthening the immunization system is a good initiative, however, it is hard to succeed if there is a disbalance between ‘supply’ and ‘demand’ sides,”, - underlined Dr. Svetlana Stefanet, UNICEF Chief of Health. We designed our project in a way that allows for strengthening the system while working on increasing demand for immunization among population. Our ultimate goal is o communicate a very simple idea to the caregivers of children – Immunization in Uzbekistan is free, safe and critical for a child’s health,” – Dr. Stefanet added.

In 2012, the Ministry of Health and UNICEF conducted a number of training workshops on vaccine safety and inter-personal communication skills for medical personnel. Street theater performances devoted to immunization issues were staged in a number of country’s regions. Roundtables and meetings with communities, including mobile groups of population (luli) were organized. These interventions helped covering around 3 000 health care system representatives and 50 000 citizens.

Talk show also discussed the www.privivka.uz web-portal, which is under reconstruction at the moment. Experts said that once the update of the portal is completed, it will serve as one of the important sources of reliable information on immunization available for those who prefer to obtain knowledge from Internet sources.

Currently, partners also work on design and implementation of a large-scale communication campaign with sports, movie and pop celebreties’ participation. Public Service Announcements will be soon broadcast through national and regional media channels, and outdoor billboards will be placed throughout the urban areas of the country.