IVI and Fiji
Ongoing Collaboration
Typhoid in Fiji – Vaccination & Elimination (TY-FIVE) consortium
Since 2020, IVI and its partners in the Fijian Ministry of Health, the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity (University of Melbourne), and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, have been conducting a pilot vaccine introduction of Bharat Biotech’s Typbar-TCV by vaccinating the entire population of the island of Vanua Levu (population around 132,000) to try to eliminate typhoid from the Northern Island of Fiji and strengthen Fiji’s current symptomatic typhoid surveillance system.
The Ty-FIVE project implemented a 10-week vaccination campaign in Fiji’s Northern Division from July to September 2023 with the aim of eliminating typhoid fever in an island setting, as a proof of concept. Bharat’s TCV was offered to individuals aged 9 months to 65 years in communities, schools, and healthcare facilities.
The campaign resulted in approximately 53% coverage of the target population (approx. 70,000 people vaccinated), with no severe adverse events reported.
TY-FIVE is made possible by $3.2 million USD in funding from the IVI Korean Support Committee.
Typhoid Silent Contamination Surveillance (Ty-SICS), Ty-FIVE ES extension
Since 2021, the Ty-SICS project has been assessing the environmental prevalence of Salmonella Typhi before and after the Ty-FIVE vaccination campaign, as a complement to the symptomatic typhoid surveillance planned under the Ty-FIVE project. Samples are being taken monthly from 35 surface water sampling sites across the island of Vanua Levu (the main island of the Northern Division), and the presence of Salmonella Typhi and fecal contamination will be detected by PCR (enrichment, filtration, PCR).
Beyond typhoid, establishing an environmental sampling system could be a tremendously useful resource to understand the geographical distribution and diversity of other environmental pathogens.
TY-SICS is done in collaboration with the Imperial College in the UK and University of Washington in the USA and is made possible by a $2.3 million USD grant from the Gates Foundation.
Strep A Vaccine Global Consortium (SAVAC) 2.0
SAVAC 2.0 was established in 2023 as a follow-on to the SAVAC 1.0 project, which sought to strengthen existing international networks and bringing new stakeholders into the global effort to introduce Group A Strep (GAS) vaccines.
SAVAC 2.0 will further accelerate the development of GAS vaccines by paving the way for clinical trials, engaging with industry stakeholders, addressing important questions regarding Strep A vaccine safety, and preparing countries and global stakeholders for the implementation of a Strep A vaccine.
In order to conduct GAS epidemiological surveillance and hold future vaccine clinical trials, SAVAC is working with its partners in Fiji, The Gambia, Malawi, and Chandigarh, India to establish sentinel sites to host these field activities.
SAVAC 2.0 partners include the Kids Research Institute in Perth, Australia; the Murdoch Children Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia; Shift Health in Toronto, Canada; the WHO; and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, USA. SAVAC 2.0 is made possible by $11.19 million USD in grants from the Wellcome Trust, Open Philanthropy, and the Leducq Foundation.
Fiji is a non-member state of the International Vaccine Institute (IVI). To read about IVI’s member state benefits package, click here.