TEHRAN – The World Health Organization (WHO) Health Emergency team and Tehran University of Medical Sciences have discussed ways to boost the capacities of the National Polio Laboratory (NPL) and the National Influenza Centre (NIC), two of Iran’s leading public health reference centres.

The health emergencies team from the WHO Country Office in Iran visited the centers on November 26. The purpose of the visit was to review ongoing collaboration, assess operational needs, and discuss ways to strengthen laboratory capacities to enhance infectious disease surveillance, the WHO website announced in a press release on December 1.

For more than four decades, the WHO has provided technical and operational support to the two national reference laboratories. Despite challenges in procuring specialized equipment and reagents, continuous WHO assistance has helped ensure the laboratories remain fully operational and able to serve the entire Iranian population.

NPL plays an essential role in safeguarding the Islamic Republic of Iran’s polio-free status. While the country’s last reported case of wild poliovirus was in 2000, ongoing transmission of wild poliovirus in neighboring countries and frequent cross-border population movement continue to pose a risk of virus importation.

To counter this threat, NPL tests environmental samples, mostly from the province of Sistan-Baluchestan, and stool samples from suspected cases referred by health facilities nationwide. Testing roughly 2500 human stool samples annually, NPL plays a critical role in timely detection and reporting. Its capacities, combined with routine polio vaccination, are vital to polio surveillance, national outbreak prevention, and global efforts to eradicate polio.

The NIC serves as Iran’s leading reference laboratory, spearheading the detection and characterization of influenza viruses and other respiratory pathogens. With WHO’s operational and technical support – from virus typing and subtyping to sequencing and strengthening national and subnational surveillance systems – NIC generates essential data that inform domestic seasonal influenza vaccination policies and outbreak response measures. It also shares data with the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System (GISRS), helping inform WHO’s recommendations for the composition of seasonal vaccines.

WHO’s continued support has helped NIC maintain strong diagnostic capacity and readiness, enabling Iran to rapidly detect and characterize emerging strains, enhance pandemic preparedness, and better protect communities from respiratory infections.

Promoting national immunization capacity

Supported by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (Gavi), the Vaccine Alliance, and the WHO, in cooperation with the Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MoHME) of Iran, has organized a workshop to promote Iran’s National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (NITAG) capacity.

Held from November 9 to 13 in Tehran, the capacity-building workshop aimed to enhance Iran’s National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (NITAG) functionality and ensure its alignment with global standards.

Participants included NITAG members from Iran, MoHME officials, and experts from the Pasteur Institute, Razi Institute, and the National Institute for Health Research, alongside representatives from WHO and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Iran and technical experts from the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean.

They attended a series of lectures, technical discussions, group work, and case presentations designed to foster teamwork, support peer-to-peer learning, and encourage knowledge sharing.

NITAG provides independent, evidence-based recommendations to support national decisions on vaccine registration, distribution, and administration in Iran. It functions in close collaboration with the Essential Programme of Immunization (EPI) and MoHME, helping guide vaccine introduction strategies and recommending ways to optimize routine vaccination throughout the life course.

Acting WHO Representative and Head of Mission in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Dr Awad Mataria, addressed the opening session, saying: “This workshop is a critical and timely event, fully aligned with our collective global and regional goals. The Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030) provides our global vision – a world where everyone, everywhere, at every age, fully benefits from vaccines for good health and well-being.”

“A central pillar of IA2030 is strong country ownership, built on robust, evidence-based decision-making. In our Region, the Strategic Framework for IA2030 makes this tangible by ensuring that Member States have a functional and strong NITAG. WHO, at all 3 levels – headquarters, the Regional Office, and the Country Office here in Tehran – is fully committed to providing technical support for this process.”

The overall goal of the workshop was to support NITAG’s capacity and promote institutional strengthening through structured training, expert guidance, and collaborative planning. This will result in a well-functioning, evidence-based advisory body that helps ensure more effective vaccine policy-making, improved immunization coverage, and better health outcomes for the entire population.

With increased Iranian engagement in global and regional immunization dialogues, there is a need to reinforce the group’s technical preparedness. The workshop represented a crucial step in equipping NITAG members and partner organizations with the tools, knowledge, and collaborative experience necessary to support high-quality immunization decisions that strengthen current interventions and improve health for all people in the country.

MT/MG