Zhifei Powering the “Dandelion Parent Class Teacher Training Program”

On April 23 when the 32nd China Prophylactic Vaccination Day is approaching, the kick-off meeting of the “Dandelion Parent Class Teacher Training Program” (“the Program” hereinafter) was hosted in Beijing by the Chinese Preventive Medicine Association (CPMA), with Chongqing Zhifei Biological Products Co.,Ltd. (“Zhifei” hereinafter) as the co-organizer, as tribute to the 40th anniversary of planned immunization in China.

The Program, initiated by CPMA under Zhifei's support, aims to train the professionals in most of China's vaccination organizations, so that they could educate the parents of children of the appropriate ages about vaccination by means of story-telling, publicize the values of of vaccines, better promoting legal, standardized vaccination which protects all eligible children with vaccines. The Program, anticipated to span a period of 3 years with an investment of nearly CNY 100 million, will train over ten thousands professionals, who will then spread the knowledge all over the country just like dandelion seeds to train more front-line vaccination workers in turn, and eventually pass these knowledge and values on to the parents via the vaccination classes.

Yang Weizhong, Vice President and Secretary General of CPMA, and Jiang Rensheng, Board Chairman and General Manager of Zhifei gave their speeches on the meeting. He Qinghua, Deputy Director General of the Bureau of Disease Prevention and Control under National Health Commission, and leaders from CPMA, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention as well as Zhifei launched the Program.

Chairman Jiang said on the meeting that he always keeps in mind his over twenty years working in the disease control field. Vaccination is the most economical, convenient and effective means of disease prevention for the common people, and it produces the maximum social benefits. Upholding the principle “Social benefits go before corporate profitability”, Zhifei has made its mission to enhance the national awareness of disease prevention and health, to introduce vaccines to the public and publicize their values for over a decade, contributing to the national health undertaking with practical actions and creating satisfactory social benefits. We also hope that, with our all-out support, in future as many as possible front-line disease control professionals will engage themselves in the Program to disseminate the concept “Prevention first, legal vaccination” to all parts of China like dandelion seeds, getting the ordinary people aware of the vaccine's values and transit from “passive” treatment to “active” prevention, so that the national health level is promoted.

A seminar for the Program was also held during the same period of the meeting. Specialists from the Institute of Medical Humanities of PKU gave presentations on the preventive vaccination related law risks and corresponding precautions; specialists from Provincial Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of Henan and Shaanxi, as well as from front-line vaccination clinics shared their experience in parent class management and their feelings about the Program's meaning.
More than 100 persons participated in the meeting, including directors in charge of provincial CDCs and Officer/Chief of the Immunization Planning Office/Section, CPMA Vaccine and Immunology Branch, vaccine companies' representatives, etc.