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The Hill: Measles Once Devastated the World Like COVID. It Still Threatens Us Today.
Millions of unvaccinated children are susceptible to measles, a highly contagious disease that kills one to two hundred thousand young children each year, with COVID-19-related disruptions to immunization programs contributing to deadly outbreaks around the globe. In a recent op-ed published in The Hill, IVAC Executive Director Dr. William Moss emphasizes the importance of strengthening health systems and ensuring children everywhere are protected against measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases. |
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[Recording] Exploring the Forefront of Digital Visualization Platforms: Women, Children, and Health
Watch an interactive session on newly available digital health platforms designed to help disseminate population health data for increased stakeholder accountability and global health sustainability. Presenters, including IVAC's Dr. Chizoba Wonodi and Rose Weeks, discussed digital tools from UNICEF, Countdown to 2030 for Women's, Children's, and Adolescents' Health, World Health Organization, and the Global Financing Facility. They spoke about lessons learned as well as how to prioritize audience members, foster comparability between geographies, engage users, and assess impact. Download the slides. |
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IVAC Presents at the European Scientific Conference on Applied Infectious Disease Epidemiology
IVAC Research Associates Anurima Baidya and Karoline Walter recently presented at the 2023 European Scientific Conference on Applied Infectious Disease Epidemiology (ESCAIDE) in Barcelona, which focused on the prevention and surveillance of infectious diseases including COVID-19, water-borne and food-borne infections, tuberculosis, HIV, and other emerging pathogens. Their poster presented results from a systematic review on the duration of protection of COVID-19 vaccines during the Omicron period. The results highlighted that booster doses provided greater protection than the primary series for severe disease, but not for symptomatic disease or infection. Protection against severe disease declined only modestly over a six-month period, irrespective of number of doses, while declines for both symptomatic disease and infection were steep, with near loss of protection by six months regardless of the number of doses. |
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IVAC Participates in Global Digital Health Forum
IVAC faculty and students joined colleagues this month at the Global Digital Health Forum in Bethesda, MD, the leading public health industry networking and relationship-building opportunity for tech innovators, donors, researchers, government representatives, and implementing organizations working in low- and middle-income countries.
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IVAC Director of Epidemiology Lectures at Chinese Vaccinology Course
Dr. Maria Deloria Knoll, IVAC Director of Epidemiology, traveled to Beijing, China, last month to lecture on pneumococcal disease at the weeklong 4th Annual Chinese Vaccinology Course (CNVAC). The event brought together stakeholders working in government, academia, and vaccine manufacturing to fill in knowledge gaps regarding pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) and other vaccines, which will hopefully contribute to nationwide introduction of these lifesaving immunizations. “Although PCV immunization through the private market is quite high in Beijing and in other high-income cities in China, and at least two local vaccine manufacturers produce PCVs, most children in China do not have access to PCV,” said Dr. Knoll. “This course provides a forum where stakeholders can gather and discuss barriers and solutions to promote equity through national introduction.”
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Adding New Childhood Vaccines to China's National Immunization Program: Evidence, Benefits, and Priorities [The Lancet Public Health]
Authors include Haijun Zhang and Bryan N Patenaude
In this review, researchers assessed the disease burden, coverage, inequalities, and cost-effectiveness for four childhood vaccines that are not currently included in China's National Immunization Program (NIP): pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), rotavirus vaccine, Hib vaccine, and varicella vaccine. Available evidence demonstrates that incorporating these vaccines in the NIP in 2019 could have averted 11,761 deaths among children under 5. Researchers recommend that to improve vaccination coverage and decrease existing inequities, these vaccines should be introduced into the NIP in the following order: PCV, rotavirus vaccine, Hib vaccine, and varicella vaccine. |
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The Impact of Introducing Rotavirus and Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV) in Chad, Guinea, Somalia and South Sudan [DefeatDD Blog]
By Jasmine Huber, Sarah Nabia, and Anita Shet
In 2017, approximately 43,000 children across Chad, Guinea, Somalia, and South Sudan died from acute lower respiratory infections, and 24,000 children died from diarrheal diseases. Using the Lives Saved Tool (LiST), a modeling system that estimates the impact of health interventions on mortality and morbidity, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health estimated that introduction and scale-up of PCV and rotavirus vaccines could save the lives of over 80,000 children under 5 and prevent nearly four million cases of childhood pneumonia, meningitis, and diarrhea in these four countries between 2024 and 2030. |
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