Building a way forward: Enabling community voices to forge the path toward successful immunization for all.

Community engagement is vital to the development of people-centered, successful vaccination programs. The diverse Vaccination Acceptance Research Network (VARN) community brings together interdisciplinary professionals from across the immunization ecosystem who play a crucial role in vaccination acceptance, demand, and delivery. Over the course of the VARN2023 conference, researchers and practitioners alike shared ideas and experiences focused on strategies and approaches to building trust between communities and health systems to increase equity in vaccination. Health professionals and community members must have equal value in the design and delivery of community-centered immunization services, while key vaccination decision-makers must also consider community experiences, concerns, and expertise in program design and policymaking. Therefore, strategies for community engagement and cultivating trust with communities are crucial for the success of any immunization program. Furthermore, health workers need additional skills, support, and resources to effectively communicate complex information about immunization, including effective strategies for countering misinformation. This article summarizes three skills-building sessions offered at the VARN2023 conference, focused on human-centered design, motivational interviewing, and engaging with journalists to leverage the voices of communities. These sessions offered practical, evidence-based tools for use across geographic and social settings that can be used by practitioners, researchers, and other stakeholders to increase vaccination demand and uptake in their communities.

CDC's COVID-19 International Vaccine Implementation and Evaluation Program and Lessons from Earlier Vaccine Introductions.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) supports international partners in introducing vaccines, including those against SARS-CoV-2 virus. CDC contributes to the development of global technical tools, guidance, and policy for COVID-19 vaccination and has established its COVID-19 International Vaccine Implementation and Evaluation (CIVIE) program. CIVIE supports ministries of health and their partner organizations in developing or strengthening their national capacities for the planning, implementation, and evaluation of COVID-19 vaccination programs. CIVIE's 7 priority areas for country-specific technical assistance are vaccine policy development, program planning, vaccine confidence and demand, data management and use, workforce development, vaccine safety, and evaluation. We discuss CDC's work on global COVID-19 vaccine implementation, including priorities, challenges, opportunities, and applicable lessons learned from prior experiences with Ebola, influenza, and meningococcal serogroup A conjugate vaccine introductions.

Healthy Contact Lens Behaviors Communicated by Eye Care Providers and Recalled by Patients - United States, 2018.

An estimated 45 million U.S. residents enjoy the benefits of contact lens wear, but many of them might be at increased risk for complications stemming from improper wear and care behaviors (1). One of the most serious complications of contact lens wear is a corneal infection known as microbial keratitis, which can sometimes result in reduced vision or blindness (2). In 2014, 50% of contact lens wearers reported ever sleeping in contact lenses, and 55% reported topping off* their contact lens solutions (3), which put them at greater risk for a contact lens-related eye infection (2,4). Data on communication between eye care providers and contact lens wearers on contact lens wear and care recommendations are limited. Two surveys were conducted to better understand and assess contact lens education about nine recommendations: the first assessed contact lens wearer experiences regarding recommendations received from eye care providers during their most recent appointment; the second evaluated provider-reported practices for communicating contact lens wear and care recommendations to their patients. One third (32.9%) of contact lens wearers aged ≥18 years recalled never hearing any lens wear and care recommendations. Fewer than half (47.9%) recalled hearing their provider recommend not sleeping in lenses at their last visit, and 19.8% recalled being told to avoid topping off their contact lens solution. A majority of providers reported sharing recommendations always or most of the time at initial visits, regular checkups, and complication-related visits. Providers reported sharing nearly all recommendations more frequently at initial and complication-related visits than at regular checkups. Of the nine recommendations for safe contact lens wear and care, eye care providers at regular checkups most often recommend complying with the recommended lens replacement schedules (85% of regular visits), not sleeping in lenses (79.0% of regular visits), and not topping off solutions (64.4% of regular visits). Eye care providers play an important role in the health of their contact lens-wearing patients and can share health communication messages with their patients to help educate them about healthy wear and care habits. These findings can assist in the creation of health communication messages to help encourage eye care providers to communicate more effectively with their patients.