Notices

Health Department Publishes Request for Proposal for HIV Testing in Pharmacies

Health Department Publishes Request for Proposal for HIV Testing in Pharmacies

PHILADELPHIA—The Health Department is making four to six grants of up to $75,000 available to increase the availability of low-barrier HIV testing and connection to care services in select priority zip codes in Philadelphia. The request for proposals is part of the Health Department’s community-driven Plan to End the HIV Epidemic in Philadelphia, which envisions decreasing new HIV infections by 75% by 2025 and by 90% by 2030. Grant submissions may be made by applicants who operate pharmacies in the listed priority zip codes, and may address HIV testing, information distribution, linkage to care, and participation in training.

The accessibility of pharmacies for HIV testing presents a unique opportunity for pharmacists to contribute to the identification of undiagnosed HIV. An estimated 90% of urban consumers live within two miles of a pharmacy. A CDC-funded feasibility study offering rapid, point-of-care testing in community pharmacies and retail clinics found that pharmacies and retail clinics represent a vast, largely untapped potential for the delivery of HIV testing in settings that are more accessible and, for some people, less stigmatizing than traditional testing.

With this RFP, the Health Department’s goal is to expand opportunities for HIV testing in neighborhoods in Philadelphia with the highest incidence of persons newly diagnosed with HIV in 2019 through community-based retail pharmacies.

Eligible applicants are independent and non-independent pharmacies currently operating in the priority areas listed in this request for proposals or with appropriate justification and prior approval of the Department in an immediately adjacent ZIP code neighborhood. Based on local analysis of recent data on HIV testing, newly diagnosed HIV, and HIV testing resources by zip code, the Health Department has identified 13 priority zip codes for this RFP.

To learn more about the request for proposals, all documentation is available on the eContractPhilly website, under Opportunity 21221013101712. The Health Department’s Community Plan to End the HIV Epidemic in Philadelphia can be downloaded here.

V-Safe for Monkeypox Vaccine: Survey to Assess Promotion Willingness and Perceived Barriers

The Immunization Safety Office at CDC will soon be going live with a monkeypox module in CDC’s v-safe After Vaccination Health Checker. V-safe is a voluntary smartphone-based system that uses text messaging and web surveys to provide personalized and confidential health check-ins. Participants can tell CDC how they, or their child or dependent, feel after they receive a monkeypox vaccine.Based on the success of v-safe for COVID-19, the CDC has found that promoting and encouraging enrollment at the vaccine delivery site is the best way to make vaccine recipients aware of v-safe. Please fill out this short survey to assess willingness and perceived barriers to promotion of v-safe at your practice.

Temperature Reporting for Online Vaccine Ordering

Temperature Reporting for Online Vaccine Ordering

Temperature logs must be submitted on the same day as any order placed for federal vaccine (VFC, VFAAR, flu, COVID-19, or monkeypox)!

Temperature logs are to be uploaded in PhilaVax and emailed to tempcheck@phila.gov. The logs must show that the unit is within the appropriate temperature ranges and that there have been no alarms. This reporting guide can assist you in submitting your DDL temperature files.

For more information on ordering and how to upload your temperature log, please attend the next online ordering training on November 10, 2022 from 10:00AM – 11:00AM EST. Click the link below to register for the training.

Register: Online Ordering Training

If your site uses a privately purchased DDL or cannot upload in PhilaVax, please contact tempcheck@phila.gov.

Thank you for keeping Philadelphia safe and healthy!

Become a Monkeypox Vaccine Provider

Does your pharmacy see patients who are at a higher risk of monkeypox infection? If so, please consider becoming a Jynneos vaccine provider and help stop the spread of monkeypox infection. The current patient eligibility guidelines are as follows:

People who meet the following conditions:

Gay, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, and other men who have sex with men, transgender, or non-binary persons

AND meet one of the following criteria:

Have had multiple or anonymous sex partners in the last 14 days
Have had any newly diagnosed STI in the past 12 months, including gonorrhea, chlamydia, early syphilis, or HIV
Have recently attended or plan to attend any venue where anonymous sex or sex with multiple partners will occur (e.g. saunas, bathhouses, sex clubs, sex parties)
Have met recent partners or plan to meet new partners through social media platforms (such as Grindr, Tinder or Scruff), or at clubs, raves, sex parties, saunas

Additionally, the following people are eligible:

Sex workers (of any sex or gender), and/or
Anyone with known close contact (skin-to-skin) with someone with monkeypox in the past 14 days

If your patients are eligible for the monkeypox vaccine, we encourage you to enroll as a Jynneos vaccine provider. The Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP) now includes liability coverage for pharmacists for countermeasures against smallpox (variola virus), monkeypox virus, and other orthopoxviruses. Read the monkeypox PREP FAQ.

Note: this vaccine is administered intradermally, and may require some additional training of staff to administer appropriately.

Please complete the enrollment form if your site is interested in offering Jynneos vaccine.

Please reach out to Kenya Mack at Kenya.Mack@phila.gov or Jillian Brown at Jillian.Brown@phila.gov with any questions.

Monkeypox Vaccine Update: Expanded Eligibility

Monkeypox vaccine eligibility requirements have recently been updated. The following people are eligible to be vaccinated against monkeypox in Philadelphia:• Gay, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, and other men who have sex with men, transgender, or non-binary persons

IF they meet ONE of the following criteria:• Have had multiple or anonymous sex partners in the last 14 days• Have had any newly diagnosed STI in the past 12 months, including gonorrhea, chlamydia, early syphilis, or HIV• Have recently attended or plan to attend any venue where anonymous sex or sex with multiple partners will occur (e.g. saunas, bathhouses, sex clubs, sex parties)• Have met recent partners or plan to meet new partners through social media platforms (such as Grindr, Tinder or Scruff), or at clubs, raves, sex parties, saunas Additionally, the following people are eligible:• Sex partners (of any sex or gender) of people who meet the above criteria• Sex workers (of any sex or gender)

• Anyone with known close contact (skin-to-skin) with someone with monkeypox in the past 14 days

Thank you for keeping Philadelphia safe and healthy! If you have any questions about these updates, please contact vaccines@phila.gov.

VFC and VFAAR Shipping Delays

Our vaccine distribution center is currently working through an unanticipated backlog of flu and non-flu VFC and VFAAR orders.To ensure that your site has the vaccines you need during this time, please plan to order additional vaccine before you run out and order an additional 1 -2 weeks of vaccine in your next order, if you have space in your storage units.Continue to order flu vaccine as needed.Order additional non-flu vaccine every 25 days (from last approved order) or when you are down to a 2- 3 week supply of any given vaccine. If it has been less than 25 days since your last order, complete your reconciliation and then email our team at DPHProviderHelp@phila.gov to open your order. Use the ordering formula cheat sheet to calculate how much vaccine to order.

Immunization Techniques Training

Wednesday, October 12, 2022, from 8:30 am – 12:00 pm, 1:00 pm – 4:30 pm

**Please arrive 15 minutes early. Late arrivals will not be able to attend.**

The Immunization Program is hosting a FREE Immunization Techniques training this Fall. Class participants are limited and will be taken on a first-come, first-served basis. A maximum of 20 participants will be accepted per session. Participants can only attend one training per year.This half-day, interactive, education session will focus on the basics of vaccine-preventable diseases, vaccines, immunization administration techniques, and pediatric immunization schedules. We encourage attendance by Nurses and Medical Assistants who administer vaccines or who will be administering vaccines in the future. This course is beneficial to new practitioners as well as seasoned practitioners who need a refresher course or would like an update on best practices for administering vaccines.We hope to see you there!

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to dphproviderhelp@phila.gov.

Moderna Bivalent Booster Ordering Resumed

Moderna Bivalent Booster ordering has been turned back on in Philavax and Monday.com. Please note: allocations are still limited at this time so providers may not receive what is requested based on dose availability.

Please make sure you are selecting the correct NDC when ordering bivalent boosters (see table below). Selecting the monovalent product code and then selecting booster in the Dose Number column will not allow you to order bivalent doses. You will need to select the correct NDC. All previously submitted orders of bivalent vaccines during the ordering pause will need to be resubmitted for processing.

Become a Monkeypox Vaccine Provider

Become a Monkeypox Vaccine Provider

Do you see patients who are at a higher risk of monkeypox infection? If so, please consider becoming a Jynneos vaccine provider and help stop the spread of monkeypox infection. The current patient eligibility guidelines are as follows:

People who meet ALL of the following conditions:

Gay, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, and other men who have sex with men, transgender, or non-binary persons

AND meet one of the following criteria:

Have had multiple or anonymous sex partners in the last 14 days
Have had any newly diagnosed STI in the past 12 months, including gonorrhea, chlamydia, early syphilis, or HIV
Have recently attended or plan to attend any venue where anonymous sex or sex with multiple partners will occur (e.g. saunas, bathhouses, sex clubs, sex parties) in the next 30 days
Have met recent partners or plan to meet new partners in the next 30 days through social media platforms (such as Grindr, Tinder or Scruff), or at clubs, raves, sex parties, saunas

Additionally, the following people are eligible:

Sex workers (of any sex or gender), and/or
Anyone with known close contact (skin-to-skin) with someone with monkeypox in the past 14 days

If your site sees patients who are eligible for the monkeypox vaccine, we encourage you to enroll as a Jynneos vaccine provider. Sites are not required to see non-patients, but we do encourage providers to offer walk-in vaccine availability and if possible, vaccinate non-patients.

Note: this vaccine is administered intradermally, and may require some additional training of staff to administer appropriately.Please complete the enrollment form if your site is interested in offering Jynneos vaccine.

Please reach out to Kenya Mack at Kenya.Mack@phila.gov or Jillian Brown at Jillian.Brown@phila.gov with any questions.

Moderna Bivalent Ordering Pause

Due to limited initial allocations of bivalent vaccines, we are currently unable to approve new Moderna bivalent booster orders. Ordering for Moderna boosters has been turned off in Philavax and made unavailable in Monday.com. The city does expect to receive an allocation increase and we will reopen ordering in Philavax and Monday.com at that time.

Please keep in mind that Moderna is experiencing some delivery delays for previously placed orders as well. We appreciate your patience at this time and apologize for any inconveniences as a result of this delay.