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Examining GPEI Strategic Plan to end polio

Writing in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog, Apoorva Mallya, a program officer for the foundation's vaccine delivery team, highlights a recent Lancet editorial examining the Global Polio Eradication Initiative's six-year Strategic Plan to end polio.

15 Mar 2013

Varicella vaccine prevents hospital admission, saves lives

The widespread introduction of a chicken pox vaccine in Australia in 2006 has prevented thousands of children from being hospitalized with severe chicken pox and saved lives, according to new research.

14 Mar 2013

Taliban alleged to have stopped annual polio vaccination program in rural Afghanistan

"The Taliban have halted an annual polio vaccination campaign in a remote part of Afghanistan, according to a senior official, raising concerns that opposition to the critical immunization drive could be spilling across from insurgent groups in neighboring Pakistan," the Guardian reports.

14 Mar 2013

Global Vaccine Summit organizers hope to obtain increased commitments to end polio

"The Global Vaccine Summit will be held on April 24 and 25 under the patronage of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, and in partnership with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation," The National reports.

11 Mar 2013

Global Vaccine Summit to be held in Abu Dhabi from Apr. 24-25

Under the patronage of His Highness General Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan , Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and in partnership with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki -moon and Bill Gates , co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, it was announced today that a Global Vaccine Summit will be held in Abu Dhabi on April 24-25, 2013.

7 Mar 2013

UK’s health performance declining compared with 14 EU countries over past 20 years

Six decades of universal free health care, the introduction of widespread public health initiatives (eg, tobacco control, cancer screening, and immunisation), and substantial increases in health expenditure have failed to improve the UK’s health outcomes or longevity ranking against the average of 14 other original members of the European Union, Australia, Canada, Norway, and the USA (EU15+) over the past 20 years.

6 Mar 2013

UAE Exchange Shamshabad branch actively participated in Pulse Polio immunization program

"Children's Health, The Nation's Wealth" is the motto that all the staff of UAE Exchange Shamshabad branch held close to their heart. The second phase of the Pulse Polio Immunization program, was held across India on February 24th.

5 Mar 2013

GP consultations: an interview with Associate Professor Helena Britt, University of Sydney

Well it hasn’t varied at all over the last 15 years, which I find pretty amazing because we’ve been through a lot of changes in general practice. Yet, the average length of consultation, as measured from a start to finish time, in a sample of 40,000 consultations in Australia in a year, shows that the average is 15 minutes and the median is 13 minutes.

4 Mar 2013

India needs political leadership, resources to ensure children's right to health

"India is making positive strides in reducing child mortality through new policies and ambitious programs, but preventing the deaths of millions of children remains one of the country's greatest challenges," health expert and blogger John Butler writes in the Wall Street Journals "India Real Time" blog, noting, "Roughly 1.7 million children under five years old die every year in India, says UNICEF, representing more than a fifth of all child deaths worldwide."

2 Mar 2013

WHO officials, Islamic leaders to meet in Egypt to discuss attacks on polio workers

"Top World Health Organization officials and Islamic leaders will meet in Egypt next week in an effort to stop attacks on polio workers, which are hampering the eradication of the virus in some countries with large Muslim populations," Reuters reports, noting, "Gunmen in Pakistan and Nigeria have killed more than 20 health workers in the past three months in a series of attacks linked to a backlash against the immunization program against the crippling virus."

2 Mar 2013

Synthetic progesterone birth control injections have vulnerability to certain infections: Research

Women who are pregnant or using synthetic progesterone birth control injections have a conspicuous vulnerability to certain infections including malaria, Listeria, HIV, and herpes simplex virus.

2 Mar 2013

New York City Mayor Bloomberg pledges $100M to global polio eradication initiative

"New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has pledged $100 million to help the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and others to fight polio around the world," the Associated Press reports.

1 Mar 2013

Oral polio vaccine cold chain disruption in Pakistan could compromise immunization effectiveness, health officials warn

Health officials in Pakistan have formally complained to the WHO concerning the quality of oral polio vaccine (OPV) doses distributed by the U.N. body," SciDev.Net reports, noting 58 children became infected with polio in 2012 despite having received the vaccine.

22 Feb 2013

Vaccine prices and availability: an interview with Kate Elder, Vaccines Policy Advisor for Médecins Sans Frontières's Access Campaign

One of the key reasons why children are missed by immunization programs, particularly in developing countries where Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) works, is that the products that we currently have in their present formulation are not well-suited to the places that have the most un-immunized children. These are the most challenging contexts to work in.

19 Feb 2013

Blogs examine root causes, implications of myths about polio vaccination

Citing a review by Telegraph correspondent Rob Crilly criticizing the film Zero Dark Thirty "for getting its facts wrong about the CIA vaccination campaign that sought to confirm the DNA of Osama bin Laden's children," development blogger Tom Murphy writes in the Humanosphere blog, "Crilly's larger point is to say that the film gives further ammo to polio vaccine conspiracy theorists."

14 Feb 2013

Learning from India's success in eradicating polio

In a post in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog, Shelley Thakral, senior communications officer for the foundation's India Country Office, interviews Orin Levine, director of vaccine delivery at the foundation, about his recent trip to India "to observe the experience of Bihar, a state in Northern India, where the polio effort is now being leveraged to strengthen routine immunization in ways that are really exciting."

13 Feb 2013

PharmaJet receives Performance, Quality and Safety pre-qualified certification from WHO

PharmaJet Inc. has become the first and only needle-free injection company to receive Performance, Quality and Safety (PQS) pre-qualified certification from the World Health Organization (WHO).

12 Feb 2013

Uganda's childhood immunization programs face challenges, IRIN reports

"Inadequate funding, a shortage of health staff, and poor adherence to vaccination schedules are some of the reasons for declining immunization levels in Uganda, which experts say threatens efforts to reduce preventable deaths among children," IRIN reports.

7 Feb 2013

U.S. should issue formal ban on using vaccination campaigns as cover for intelligence operations

In an opinion piece in Bloomberg Businessweek's "Small World" blog, Charles Kenny, a fellow at the Center for Global Development and the New America Foundation, examines the effects of "a fake polio vaccination drive organized by the CIA in an effort to collect DNA from [Osama] bin Laden's family" on polio immunization efforts in Pakistan.

5 Feb 2013

GAVI Alliance to fund HPV immunization projects in 8 countries

The GAVI Alliance "is to help protect more than 180,000 girls in eight countries across Africa and Asia from cervical cancer by funding immunization projects with vaccines from Merck and GlaxoSmithKline," Reuters reports in an article examining the group's efforts to vaccinate young women with Merck's Gardasil and GSK's Cervarix, "the world's only two approved shots designed to protect against the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV) that causes the vast majority of cervical cancer cases."

5 Feb 2013

Immunization News and Research

Examining GPEI Strategic Plan to end polio

Varicella vaccine prevents hospital admission, saves lives

Taliban alleged to have stopped annual polio vaccination program in rural Afghanistan

Global Vaccine Summit organizers hope to obtain increased commitments to end polio

Global Vaccine Summit to be held in Abu Dhabi from Apr. 24-25

UK’s health performance declining compared with 14 EU countries over past 20 years

UAE Exchange Shamshabad branch actively participated in Pulse Polio immunization program

GP consultations: an interview with Associate Professor Helena Britt, University of Sydney

India needs political leadership, resources to ensure children's right to health

WHO officials, Islamic leaders to meet in Egypt to discuss attacks on polio workers

Synthetic progesterone birth control injections have vulnerability to certain infections: Research

New York City Mayor Bloomberg pledges $100M to global polio eradication initiative

Oral polio vaccine cold chain disruption in Pakistan could compromise immunization effectiveness, health officials warn

Vaccine prices and availability: an interview with Kate Elder, Vaccines Policy Advisor for Médecins Sans Frontières's Access Campaign

Blogs examine root causes, implications of myths about polio vaccination

Learning from India's success in eradicating polio

PharmaJet receives Performance, Quality and Safety pre-qualified certification from WHO

Uganda's childhood immunization programs face challenges, IRIN reports

U.S. should issue formal ban on using vaccination campaigns as cover for intelligence operations

GAVI Alliance to fund HPV immunization projects in 8 countries

Achieving and maintaining ISO/IEC 27001 and BS 10012 certifications

Expanding research and clinical options for children with cancer

Examining how pain could play a direct protective role in the gut

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