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Georgia, one of the 16 countries graduating from GAVI support, plans to use information campaigns to further boost its immunisation coverage. Based on revised eligibility criteria, the former Soviet republic will start to phase out GAVI support from 2012.
Georgia’s routine immunisation coverage is 91%, up from 80% in 2000, but public attitudes and lack of information remain the biggest obstacles to increasing immunisation, says Givi Azaurashvili, Georgia’s manager for the Expanded Programme on Immunization.
“Based on the information campaigns that we are planning to run, we expect that demand for vaccines will increase. Georgia stands firm on its commitment to increase coverage, to increase the budget for immunisation,” he says.
Georgia has already introduced the pentavalent vaccine, is rolling out the rotavirus vaccine in 2012 and aims to introduce the pneumococcal vaccine in the near future.