EMPHNET, in collaboration with the Jordan Ministry of Health (MoH) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), conducted a workshop titled “Serosurvey for At-risk Areas in Jordan” between May 8 and 12, 2016 in Amman, Jordan. The objective of the workshop was to provide participants with the necessary information, guidelines, tools, and skills they need to conduct a countrywide serosurvey that can determine the immunity levels against polio and other vaccine preventable diseases among Jordan’s at-risk children.

Forty participants were in attendance, including personnel from the MoH’s Health Directorates: Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) Managers, phlebotomists, and data collectors. This workshop comes in response to the polio cases that emerged in 2013 among displaced persons in Iraq and Syria. These reported cases pose a health threat for Jordan and other neighboring countries due to a refugee influx from both countries.

The workshop sessions consisted of a five-day instruction specific to the serosurvey scheduled to be conducted following the training’s conclusion. These sessions examined aspects related to team formation; team members’ roles and responsibilities; sampling in the field; obtaining the written consent; using the paper-based questionnaire; completing the e-questionnaire using a tablet; and phlebotomy guidelines. Pilot testing in the field was performed on the last day of the workshop.

The actual serosurvey was conducted between May 18 and June 6, 2016. Target group was children aged 6-59 months, who are at the highest risk of vaccine preventable diseases- polio, measles and rubella. The geographical areas that were surveyed across all governorates were the most at risk as identified by the MoH. They included areas densely populated by refugees, Jordanian border areas with Syria and Iraq, areas with dense nomadic populations, hard-to-reach areas, and areas where coverage was less than 90% in previous vaccination campaigns. In addition, the Zaatari and Azraq Syrian refugee camps were sampled.

Teams conducting the survey consisted of EPI managers as team leaders, phlebotomists, data collectors, and drivers. Six teams were distributed across the Kingdom’s governorates: 2 for central areas, 2 for the north, 2 for the south. Conducted through day-to-day cooperation between EMPHNET, the Ministry of Health team, and the team in the field, the survey was implemented through the following steps: selecting the sample from families, confirming eligibility of the sample, obtaining written consent, completing the questionnaire using a tablet, drawing blood, processing blood sample, and sending the blood sample to the Central Laboratory at the end of each day.

By the end of the survey implementation period, 744 blood samples were collected with over a 95% response rate. The samples were collected from Jordanian, Syrian, Egyptian, Palestinian, Iraqi, and Pakistani children within the targeted age group. These blood samples will be sent to the CDC for analysis.

This countrywide serosurvey comes in line with EMPHNET’s mission in supporting training in areas that bring advancement to public health and help foster a research culture. These training opportunities aim at strengthening the capacity of public health professionals in order to increase their involvement in research and advance scientific investigations that can bring about improvements in different areas, such as research process, monitoring and evaluation, and data for decision making.