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In Jan 2011 the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI) and its partners are rolling out a new vaccine to prevent pneumonia in Kenya. In the developing world, pneumonia kills in the neighborhood of 1.4 million kids every year. Pneumococcal, the deadliest strain of that illness (and a major cause of what we might call “regular” pneumonia), kills 800,000.
Kenya's pneumococcal vaccine's official launch date is Feb 14, but we were able to photograph a clinic near the Kibera slum in Nairobi that already started providing the vaccine this week.
This health center is the Langata (sometimes called Kibera) District’s regional distribution center for the 36 clinics within the district. They collect all of the vaccines from the Regional Disbursement Center and, since they must maintain the cold chain to ensure the efficacy and safety of the vaccine, haul them back to Langata in well-used, white Styrofoam coolers. There, they are stored in an upright, avocado green refrigerator. But, it works and that’s what counts. They are then divided up and dispersed to the 27 clinics in the District that have trained personnel to give the vaccines.
Mass Polio Vaccination Campaign Supported by WHO and UNICEF Kicks Off in Iraq
11 August 2014 – Iraq has launched a polio immunization campaign aiming to protect over four million children under the age of 5 throughout the country against the crippling disease.
The four-day campaign, undertaken by the Ministry of Health with the support of WHO and UNICEF, is part of the national response to the re-emergence of the polio virus earlier this year which ended nearly 14 years of Iraq's polio-free status.
“This campaign comes at a critical time while the country is witnessing a huge internal exodus of children fleeing violence and turmoil,” said Marzio Babille, UNICEF Iraq Representative. “This is a top priority for UNICEF. No child should be missed. No child should be paralysed.”
The campaign aims to reach children in conflict zones, displaced communities and host populations. The on-going violence in the country has precipitated the internal displacement of nearly 1.2 million people since the beginning of the year. Almost 200,000 have been displaced only in the last three days alone. UNICEF estimates half of that number are children.
“As the violence spreads, children are being displaced up to three times with their families, often living in overcrowded conditions where they are at a much higher risk of contracting infectious diseases,” said Dr Syed Jaffar Hussain, WHO Iraq Representative. “WHO is working with the national health authorities and partners to ensure that the health of all vulnerable populations, especially children, is protected against diseases like Polio.”
With two cases of polio in Iraq and a relatively high number of unvaccinated children due to difficulties in accessing families and children, especially in conflict zones and due to social reservations, Iraq has now become vulnerable to a wider outbreak of the crippling and incurable disease. WHO and UNICEF are helping health authorities reach children in 12 governorates, including the three governorates in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq where approximately 250,000 Iraqi children and 125,000 Syrian children have taken refuge.
“Iraq is one of seven countries included in a consolidated polio response plan by WHO and UNICEF that aims to reach 25 million children in the region with repeated doses of the vaccine. Everything possible must be done to reach all children and end polio forever,” said Chris Maher, WHO manager for polio eradication.
For more Information, please contact:
Juliette Touma, on mission to UNICEF Iraq, jtouma@unicef.org, +964-780-9-288-265 or +962-79-867-4628
Karim El-Korany, UNICEF Iraq, kelkorany@unicef.org, +964-780-92-585-42
Bahaaeldin Elkoussy, WHO polio programme, elkoussyb@who.int, +201006019316
Ajyal Al-Sultany, WHO Iraq, sultanya@who.int, +964 7809 269 506
Upasana Society in association with Rotaract club of Caduceus and MBBS and Physiotherapy students of other colleges carried out Immunization awareness camp at Kandivali East, Thakur complex on 13th February 2016. Around 50 to 60 kids got their general body check up done and finally tetanus vaccination was given to the kids from the nearby government center.
The camp started at 10:00 am and got done by around 2:30pm. Some of the girls were even given information about menstrual hygiene and will be soon provided with free sanitary napkins.
Thanks to Christina Lobo and Prince Tiwari for being there.
www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00234-7
Some say the US Food and Drug Administration’s suggestion of updating COVID-19 vaccines each year, as happens with influenza jabs, could boost uptake.
Scientists are split on a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposal to update COVID-19 vaccines once a year, similar to the agency’s approach to updating influenza vaccines. At a meeting of the FDA’s vaccine advisory panel on 26 January, some researchers argued that the plan would help to simplify the country’s complex COVID-19 immunization schedule and might boost uptake as a result.
But others were less convinced that the jab should be updated each US autumn — or whether healthy adults should be urged to receive an annual COVID-19 jab at all. Angela Shen, a vaccine specialist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, says the proposal, released on Monday, is “conceptually not a bad idea”. But she questions whether the data support updating the vaccine composition once a year, because SARS-CoV-2 spawns new variants at a different rate than does influenza. “Just scratching out ‘flu’ and replacing it with ‘COVID’ on all the documents might not work, because COVID is not the flu,” says Shen, who is a former member of a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory panel on immunization practices.
The timeline for updating flu jabs is based on the well-documented seasonal pattern for the emergence of new strains: selection of strains for Northern Hemisphere vaccines is based in part on which versions spread widely during the previous Southern Hemisphere winter. Although there is some evidence that SARS-CoV-2 also spreads seasonally, that pattern is not as predictable as influenza’s.
“We understand the seasonality of flu, and know exactly when to vaccinate for optimal effect,” says Luciana Borio, a former FDA acting chief scientist, who is now a global-health specialist at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City. But “we simply do not know whether people need to be vaccinated every year or less frequently to be protected from severe COVID”.
Additionally, SARS-CoV-2 variants don’t sweep the world as uniformly as influenza strains do, which means it will be difficult to coordinate the composition of a COVID-19 jab globally. Bruce Gellin, a global-health specialist at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Pandemic Prevention Initiative in New York City, asked at the meeting if the annual-update proposal would implicitly require that other countries follow the FDA’s decisions. Bill Falstich, vice-president for global supply chain at vaccine-manufacturer Pfizer, which is based in New York City, responded, “Not necessarily.”
Right timing?
Although offering COVID-19 vaccines alongside influenza jabs could boost uptake, Gellin also questioned the plan to offer the updated jab in the US autumn. Throughout the pandemic, the United States has seen a late-summer COVID-19 wave in addition to a larger winter surge, which could suggest that it’s better to give the vaccine earlier in the year, he says.
But administering the jab before the winter surge could avert a rush of hospitalizations, noted Peter Marks, head of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research in Silver Spring, Maryland. In winter, clinics are swamped with people infected with influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which led to some US hospitals nearing capacity this season.
Harmonized composition
At the same meeting, the vaccine advisory panel unanimously endorsed the agency’s proposal to adopt a single COVID-19 vaccination composition for primary and booster doses. Currently, people in the United States complete a primary COVID-19 vaccination series — at least two doses of the vaccines made by Pfizer–BioNTech, Moderna or Novavax, or a single jab of a Johnson & Johnson vaccine — all of which should then be followed by a booster two months later. For the booster, Pfizer–BioNTech and Moderna at first offered an extra dose of its original vaccine, but the companies now offer only ‘bivalent’ boosters, which include more than one strain of SARS-CoV-2.
Uptake of bivalent boosters has been low in the United States: about 15% of eligible people have received a two-strain jab. Some experts say that is because many people have received a mixture of vaccines, which has led to confusion over which type of booster they should get and when.
“We desperately need to simplify the vaccination schedule,” says Megan Ranney, a physician and public-health specialist at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. “If we’re going to sustain our ability to vaccinate the country, we have to move toward a more standardized schedule, from a behavioural-science point of view.” The proposal to adopt a single vaccine composition for the whole series would alleviate some of that confusion, and it might boost vaccine uptake because jabs could be offered alongside annual influenza vaccines, she adds. “These changes make a lot of sense.”
Future decision
Standardizing vaccine composition for the primary and booster series would probably mean that the bivalent vaccine would become the main formulation for people who haven’t yet had a primary series.
The bivalent boosters currently used in the United States, the United Kingdom and elsewhere target both the ‘ancestral’ SARS-CoV-2 strain circulating at the start of the pandemic and an Omicron strain. CDC data shared at the advisory meeting show that people aged 5 and above who received just a single-strain booster are twice as likely to die from COVID-19 as those who get a bivalent booster. However, any booster still reduces overall chances of death from COVID-19.
Some meeting panellists had concerns about the decision to use a bivalent formulation, rather than an updated single-strain one, in future vaccines. Scientists noted that there are few data on the effectiveness of bivalent vaccines when given as a primary series — particularly in young children, who make up a large proportion of the people now receiving a primary series in the United States. And some studies1,2 have hinted that including the ancestral strain might blunt the vaccine’s effectiveness against Omicron, because of a phenomenon called immune imprinting.
Marks noted at the meeting that the advisory panel would convene again in May or June to discuss whether a formulation change is warranted, and that the panel would then discuss whether an updated vaccine should include just one strain of SARS-CoV-2, or multiple strains. This is an important scientific question, says Ranney — but in the meantime, “especially if you’re older or have chronic conditions, a booster is better than no booster when you’re in the middle of a surge”.
Making health facilities accessible to poor families in rural areas and ensuring universal access to quality healthcare can help bring down the graph of infant and maternal mortality in India. The high burden of infant deaths in India can be attributed to easily preventable birth complications, infection, and preterm births. Big FM in partnership with UNICEF India has started working on awareness creation on Immunization. Radio Jockey (RJ) Vikas Kaushik visited Mewat district in Haryana on 9th September and spoke to various functionaries. We see him interacting with Medical Officer Jitendra Singh and understanding the causes of resistance to immunization and how to improve the coverage.
Guy-georges Mayet, UNICEF Guinea immunization consultant, surrounded by children from Coléah high school proudly displaying their COVID19 vaccination certificates. Vaccination against COVID-19 for children aged 12 to 17 years at Coléah College, route du Niger in Conakry, Guinea. Joint immunisation activity with the National Health Security Agency of Guinea / Agence nationale de la sécurité sanitaire de Guinée (ANSS).
©UNICEF GUINEA / Desjardins Sibylle
A Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz) Brasília, a Organização Pan-Americana da Saúde (OPAS) e a Secretaria de Saúde do Distrito Federal lançaram o projeto Imuniza Estrutural, que busca aumentar a cobertura de vacinação contra COVID-19 e outras doenças imunopreveníveis, com o envolvimento da comunidade, em área de alta vulnerabilidade socioeconômica.
O projeto possui três pilares: comunicação e mobilização social; monitoramento e sustentabilidade das ações; e vacinação das populações mais vulneráveis.
Foto: Karina Zambrana - OPAS/OMS
Defense Health Agency leaders Dr. Brian Lein (right), assistant director for health care administration and Capt. Tracy Farrill (left), Transition Director, visit Branch Health Clinic Kaneohe Bay immunizations department on October 21, 2021. The team visited the newly established Hawaii Market the week of October 18, 2021 to gain perspective on the unique capabilities, staff, and mission set of each military treatment facility in Hawaii.
www.dvidshub.net/news/408628/defense-health-agency-gets-f...
A community health worker prepares a dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
Photo credit: Anne Boher/MOMENTUM Routine Immunization Transformation and Equity
A Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz) Brasília, a Organização Pan-Americana da Saúde (OPAS) e a Secretaria de Saúde do Distrito Federal lançaram o projeto Imuniza Estrutural, que busca aumentar a cobertura de vacinação contra COVID-19 e outras doenças imunopreveníveis, com o envolvimento da comunidade, em área de alta vulnerabilidade socioeconômica.
O projeto possui três pilares: comunicação e mobilização social; monitoramento e sustentabilidade das ações; e vacinação das populações mais vulneráveis.
Foto: Karina Zambrana - OPAS/OMS
A Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz) Brasília, a Organização Pan-Americana da Saúde (OPAS) e a Secretaria de Saúde do Distrito Federal lançaram o projeto Imuniza Estrutural, que busca aumentar a cobertura de vacinação contra COVID-19 e outras doenças imunopreveníveis, com o envolvimento da comunidade, em área de alta vulnerabilidade socioeconômica.
O projeto possui três pilares: comunicação e mobilização social; monitoramento e sustentabilidade das ações; e vacinação das populações mais vulneráveis.
Foto: Karina Zambrana - OPAS/OMS
Finalist of the Extreme Adventure Category of Immunizers Travel Shots Photo Contest
Photo was on display from November 28-30, 2008 at the Archaeology Wing of the Power Plant Mall at Rockwell, Makati, Philippines
Upasana Society in association with Rotaract club of Caduceus and MBBS and Physiotherapy students of other colleges carried out Immunization awareness camp at Kandivali East, Thakur complex on 13th February 2016. Around 50 to 60 kids got their general body check up done and finally tetanus vaccination was given to the kids from the nearby government center.
The camp started at 10:00 am and got done by around 2:30pm. Some of the girls were even given information about menstrual hygiene and will be soon provided with free sanitary napkins.
Thanks to Christina Lobo and Prince Tiwari for being there.
Upasana Society in association with Rotaract club of Caduceus and MBBS and Physiotherapy students of other colleges carried out Immunization awareness camp at Kandivali East, Thakur complex on 13th February 2016. Around 50 to 60 kids got their general body check up done and finally tetanus vaccination was given to the kids from the nearby government center.
The camp started at 10:00 am and got done by around 2:30pm. Some of the girls were even given information about menstrual hygiene and will be soon provided with free sanitary napkins.
Thanks to Christina Lobo and Prince Tiwari for being there.
A nurse at Jawle Health Center is screening and treating children for malnutrition with RUTF (with support from USAID). They screen an average of 1000 children a month for malnutrition and admit around 30-40 children for moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) and 20-30 for severe acute malnutrition (SAM).
Thef Jawle Health Center in Garowe town serves an area of over 33,000 people that includes many internally displaced persons (IDP) camps. The Health Center has a solar powered (on top of the roof on the right) cold chain storage unit to keep vaccines at the right temperature (blue box). On the right side of the center, mothers bring their children for vaccinations while on the left, the children are being screened and treated as outpatient for malnutrition. The center has mother and child services, nutrition treatment and a pharmacy.
The cold chain storage is one year old and supported by UNICEF through a Chibania grant and the vaccinations, health worker trainings and some incentives are provided by UNCEF with thanks to GAVI. The mother and child maternal health (MCMH) services are supported through the UK Government and RUTF by USAID.
They are seeing an increase in the number of malnourished children as the drought continues. In July there was a measles outbreak and more children for suffering but there was an outreach campaign in response to the outbreak and the situation soon stabilized. After the outreach about immunization around 530 children under 5 years old were brought into the clinic for their dose.
©UNICEF Somalia/2022/Lisa Hill
It is recommended that everyone receive a Tdap booster vaccine every 10 years. Tetanus is an infection caused by bacteria, which can invade the body and produce a toxin that causes painful muscle contractions, commonly known as “lockjaw." Pertussis, also known as whooping cough, is caused by bacteria that leads to a highly contagious respiratory disease. Pertussis can affect people of all ages, but can be very serious, even deadly, for babies less than a year old. Diphtheria is an infection caused by bacteria that can lead to a thick covering in the back of the throat. This may lead to breathing problems, heart failure, paralysis, and even death.
Photo credit: Jeannie Peng Mansyur, San Jacinto College marketing, PR and government affairs department.
Dr. Bonnie Henry, Provincial Health Officer, receives her flu and COVID-19 vaccines in Victoria, BC, on November 1, 2024.
Updated vaccines that protect against the latest influenza strains and COVID-19 variants circulating are available for people in B.C. to help protect families, communities and the health-care system.
Learn more: news.gov.bc.ca/31753
Mass Polio Vaccination Campaign Supported by WHO and UNICEF Kicks Off in Iraq
11 August 2014 – Iraq has launched a polio immunization campaign aiming to protect over four million children under the age of 5 throughout the country against the crippling disease.
The four-day campaign, undertaken by the Ministry of Health with the support of WHO and UNICEF, is part of the national response to the re-emergence of the polio virus earlier this year which ended nearly 14 years of Iraq's polio-free status.
“This campaign comes at a critical time while the country is witnessing a huge internal exodus of children fleeing violence and turmoil,” said Marzio Babille, UNICEF Iraq Representative. “This is a top priority for UNICEF. No child should be missed. No child should be paralysed.”
The campaign aims to reach children in conflict zones, displaced communities and host populations. The on-going violence in the country has precipitated the internal displacement of nearly 1.2 million people since the beginning of the year. Almost 200,000 have been displaced only in the last three days alone. UNICEF estimates half of that number are children.
“As the violence spreads, children are being displaced up to three times with their families, often living in overcrowded conditions where they are at a much higher risk of contracting infectious diseases,” said Dr Syed Jaffar Hussain, WHO Iraq Representative. “WHO is working with the national health authorities and partners to ensure that the health of all vulnerable populations, especially children, is protected against diseases like Polio.”
With two cases of polio in Iraq and a relatively high number of unvaccinated children due to difficulties in accessing families and children, especially in conflict zones and due to social reservations, Iraq has now become vulnerable to a wider outbreak of the crippling and incurable disease. WHO and UNICEF are helping health authorities reach children in 12 governorates, including the three governorates in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq where approximately 250,000 Iraqi children and 125,000 Syrian children have taken refuge.
“Iraq is one of seven countries included in a consolidated polio response plan by WHO and UNICEF that aims to reach 25 million children in the region with repeated doses of the vaccine. Everything possible must be done to reach all children and end polio forever,” said Chris Maher, WHO manager for polio eradication.
For more Information, please contact:
Juliette Touma, on mission to UNICEF Iraq, jtouma@unicef.org, +964-780-9-288-265 or +962-79-867-4628
Karim El-Korany, UNICEF Iraq, kelkorany@unicef.org, +964-780-92-585-42
Bahaaeldin Elkoussy, WHO polio programme, elkoussyb@who.int, +201006019316
Ajyal Al-Sultany, WHO Iraq, sultanya@who.int, +964 7809 269 506
Vaccines save lives. In Alem Gena Health Center, COVID-19 vaccines are integrated with other routine vaccination activities. ©UNICEF Ethiopia/2022/Demissew Bizuwerk
A nurse at Jawle Health Center is screening and treating children for malnutrition with RUTF (with support from USAID). They screen an average of 1000 children a month for malnutrition and admit around 30-40 children for moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) and 20-30 for severe acute malnutrition (SAM).
Thef Jawle Health Center in Garowe town serves an area of over 33,000 people that includes many internally displaced persons (IDP) camps. The Health Center has a solar powered (on top of the roof on the right) cold chain storage unit to keep vaccines at the right temperature (blue box). On the right side of the center, mothers bring their children for vaccinations while on the left, the children are being screened and treated as outpatient for malnutrition. The center has mother and child services, nutrition treatment and a pharmacy.
The cold chain storage is one year old and supported by UNICEF through a Chibania grant and the vaccinations, health worker trainings and some incentives are provided by UNCEF with thanks to GAVI. The mother and child maternal health (MCMH) services are supported through the UK Government and RUTF by USAID.
They are seeing an increase in the number of malnourished children as the drought continues. In July there was a measles outbreak and more children for suffering but there was an outreach campaign in response to the outbreak and the situation soon stabilized. After the outreach about immunization around 530 children under 5 years old were brought into the clinic for their dose.
©UNICEF Somalia/2022/Lisa Hill
www.cnbc.com/2021/09/06/covid-vaccinations-have-slumped-i...
Covid vaccination rates have slumped in some parts of the world, and experts are worried
Key Points
--Coronavirus vaccines were developed, trialed and authorized for emergency use in the U.S. and across Europe in record time.
--But around nine months after vaccination rollouts began in the West there has been a slowdown in some national and state-wide immunization drives.
--In some countries and states, large swathes of the populace remain unvaccinated.
When coronavirus vaccines were developed, trialed and authorized for emergency use in record time, millions of people eagerly awaited the protection and peace of mind they afforded.
But around nine months after vaccination rollouts began in the West there has been a slowdown in some national and state-wide immunization drives across the U.S. and Europe.
This slowdown, combined with a slow uptake in some areas, is worrying experts. Particularly as many Covid preventative measures have been relaxed and cases are rising in both the U.S. and parts of Europe.
“The stagnation in vaccine uptake in our region is of serious concern,” Dr. Hans Kluge, regional director of WHO’s European region, said in a press statement last week.
“Now that public health and social measures are being relaxed in many countries, the public’s vaccination acceptance is crucial if we are to avoid greater transmission, more severe disease, an increase in deaths and a bigger risk that new variants of concern will emerge.”
He said there had been 64 million confirmed cases and 1.3 million deaths in the region, which comprises 53 countries ranging from those in Western Europe to Russia and its surrounding countries. Kluge added that 33 countries in the region had reported a greater-than-10% increase in their 14-day case incidence rate.
“This high transmission is deeply worrying — particularly in the light of low vaccination uptake in priority populations in a number of countries,” Kluge said.
“In the past 6 weeks, vaccination uptake in the region has slowed down, influenced by a lack of access to vaccines in some countries and a lack of vaccine acceptance in others. As of today, only 6% of people in lower and lower-middle-income countries in our region have completed a full vaccination series.”
The picture in the U.S. and Europe
Vaccination programs kicked off late last year in both Europe and the U.S. at varying speeds. While the U.K. and U.S. were quick to start vaccinating the elderly and health care workers, the EU’s drive was more sluggish as a result of late ordering, supply constraints and contentions over clinical data (mainly with the AstraZeneca shot) hindering the progress of some rollouts in the EU.
These teething problems have largely been ironed out, however, and now a large proportion of adults and young people in the U.S. and Europe are fully vaccinated.
To date, 69.2% of adults in the EU are now fully vaccinated, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (although the European Commission announced last Tuesday that it reached its goal of vaccinating 70% of the EU’s adult population).
In the U.K., 79.8% of all over-16s are fully vaccinated and in the U.S., 62% of the population over the age of 12 is fully vaccinated, according to the U.S.′ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Vaccinating millions at short notice and under pressure during a public health crisis is an undeniable achievement, but as vaccination drives have progressed, they have slowed down in a number of countries, figures from Our World in Data show.
In April, the U.S. hit a peak in its vaccination program, administering around 3 million Covid shots per day for several weeks and hitting a single-day record of administering 4.6 million vaccine doses on April 10 but this rate slowed dramatically soon after and has only started to pick up in August.
As of August 26, the seven-day average number of administered vaccine doses reported to the CDC per day was 877,756. As of September 2, the 7-day average number of administered vaccine doses reported per day has ticked upwards to 906,992.
The sharp slowdown in vaccinations in early summer led to the U.S. reaching President Biden’s target of giving one dose to 70% of all adults by July 4 a month late, with the milestone hit instead on August 2. The miss was largely attributed to younger adults, aged between 18-29, not coming forward for their shots.
“The country has more work to do... particularly with 18- to 26-year-olds,” White House COVID-19 senior adviser Jeffrey Zients said in late June when it became apparent the target would be missed. “The reality is many younger Americans have felt like Covid-19 is not something that impacts them, and they’ve been less eager to get the shot.”
Likewise, in Europe, there has been a lower (and slower) uptake among young adults and, again, this has been attributed to a more relaxed attitude among young people toward Covid. They are at much less risk than older people from hospitalization and death, and the reopening of societies this summer looks to have removed the incentive to get immunized for some.
As the U.S.′ vaccination rollout has progressed, the divergence in vaccination rates across the U.S. has become more pronounced, varying widely across the country with southern states tending to lag behind their northern counterparts. Some states have been encouraged by the president to offer cash incentives in a bid to attract people to get a shot.
A slowdown in vaccination rates is worrying because it allows the virus to spread. This, in turn, could allow new variants to emerge, which could weaken the efficacy of the existing Covid vaccines.
The U.S. has been experiencing the spread of the highly infectious delta Covid variant this summer. It has been particularly virulent in states with low vaccination coverage, such as Louisiana, Idaho and Mississippi, where the state’s top health official said in early August that the virus was sweeping across the state “like a tsunami.”
Vaccine objectors remain
Experts say there is no one reason for the slowdown in vaccinations, given that vaccine supply is not currently an issue in the U.S. or Europe.
While younger people might not feel a pressing need to get vaccinated, others are still refusing vaccines due to concerns about the long-term safety of rapidly-developed shots. This is despite health agencies and experts backing the Covid jabs as “stunningly effective.”
As vaccination drives progress, those refusing the shot are likely to become more conspicuous, one epidemiologist told CNBC.
“My gut feeling is it’s a combination of all of the obvious — considering how much better vaccine uptake everywhere has been relative to opinion poll expectations in the early days (remember some of the dire predictions from the USA and France?), we may now be left with the residual refuseniks who, through age-group and belief, may be among the hardline objectors,” Danny Altmann, a professor of immunology at Imperial College London, told CNBC on Tuesday.
There is a wide divergence in rates of Covid vaccine acceptance and hesitancy in the U.S. and Europe. Vaccine uptake is traditionally high in the U.K. and Spain, a factor that has facilitated Covid vaccination programs, while France has seen a much more pervasive hesitancy toward the Covid vaccine.
Vaccination rates differ wildly across Europe currently, with eastern and southern European countries, Russia and its neighbors all lagging behind their western European counterparts.
Covid vaccine hesitancy remains highest in Russia and the U.S., according to the latest vaccine tracking poll from Morning Consult, which conducts over 75,000 weekly interviews across 15 countries on the Covid vaccine rollout.
The latest data, based on surveys conducted between Aug. 17-Aug. 23 (and with 45,604 interviews conducted in America) showed that Russia and the U.S. still have the highest rates of vaccine opposition among all the countries surveyed. Some 31% of Russians said they were unwilling to get the Covid vaccine (and a further 16% were uncertain over whether to receive it) and 18% of Americans polled unwilling to get the shot, with a further 10% uncertain.
Meanwhile, millions of people in other countries have no choice whether to receive a Covid vaccine or not. Although 40.3% of the world’s population has received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, only 1.8% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose, according to Our World in Data.
Global Lead Coordinator for COVID-19 Vaccine Country-Readiness and Delivery, Ted Chaiban, visits Alem Gena Health Centre COVID-19 vaccination and activities. ©UNICEF Ethiopia/2022/Demissew Bizuwerk
30-year-old Asha Osman Yarow is waiting for her son to be vaccinated against polio in Mogadishu, Somalia on Monday 26 October 2020.
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed what is at stake when communities do not have the protective shield of immunization against an infectious disease. When vaccines are available, they are the most effective tool to prevent dangerous disease outbreaks.
Staying informed about their benefits and understanding the risks of not getting vaccinated has never been so important. Community mobilizers play an instrumental role in this.
During the recent polio immunization campaign, 8 951 vaccinators went from door to door and 3,390 community mobilizers sensitized the target communities. The two-part campaign, organized by the federal Ministry of Health, UNICEF and WHO, reached more than a million children under the age of five in south and central regions of Somalia.
Credit: UNICEF Somalia
A nurse examines her immunization registers to find children due for vaccination.
Before the new immunization registry was implemented, nurses and the district head of vaccinators in Shkoder district worked together using a paper-based system to make sure that all children received the vaccinations they required.
Each month, the nurse made a list of all the children due to be vaccinated that month in her health center by carefully going through the health center’s paper-based immunization and cohort registries. She used this list to schedule each vaccination, notify parents, and make a list of how much vaccine to order.
Photo credit: PATH/Ilir Kaso.
Joined by Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) Secretary Rita Landgraf, DHSS Division of Public Health Director Dr. Karyl Rattay, State Council for Persons with Disabilities and Employment First Oversight Commission member Nick Fina, as well as members of the community, the Governor spoke at the kick off flu immunization emergency preparedness drill at the New Castle County Farmer’s Market. Following remarks, the Governor received his immunization during the event.
Dr. Bonnie Henry, Provincial Health Officer, receives her flu and COVID-19 vaccines in Victoria, BC, on November 1, 2024.
Updated vaccines that protect against the latest influenza strains and COVID-19 variants circulating are available for people in B.C. to help protect families, communities and the health-care system.
Learn more: news.gov.bc.ca/31753
Mass Polio Vaccination Campaign Supported by WHO and UNICEF Kicks Off in Iraq
11 August 2014 – Iraq has launched a polio immunization campaign aiming to protect over four million children under the age of 5 throughout the country against the crippling disease.
The four-day campaign, undertaken by the Ministry of Health with the support of WHO and UNICEF, is part of the national response to the re-emergence of the polio virus earlier this year which ended nearly 14 years of Iraq's polio-free status.
“This campaign comes at a critical time while the country is witnessing a huge internal exodus of children fleeing violence and turmoil,” said Marzio Babille, UNICEF Iraq Representative. “This is a top priority for UNICEF. No child should be missed. No child should be paralysed.”
The campaign aims to reach children in conflict zones, displaced communities and host populations. The on-going violence in the country has precipitated the internal displacement of nearly 1.2 million people since the beginning of the year. Almost 200,000 have been displaced only in the last three days alone. UNICEF estimates half of that number are children.
“As the violence spreads, children are being displaced up to three times with their families, often living in overcrowded conditions where they are at a much higher risk of contracting infectious diseases,” said Dr Syed Jaffar Hussain, WHO Iraq Representative. “WHO is working with the national health authorities and partners to ensure that the health of all vulnerable populations, especially children, is protected against diseases like Polio.”
With two cases of polio in Iraq and a relatively high number of unvaccinated children due to difficulties in accessing families and children, especially in conflict zones and due to social reservations, Iraq has now become vulnerable to a wider outbreak of the crippling and incurable disease. WHO and UNICEF are helping health authorities reach children in 12 governorates, including the three governorates in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq where approximately 250,000 Iraqi children and 125,000 Syrian children have taken refuge.
“Iraq is one of seven countries included in a consolidated polio response plan by WHO and UNICEF that aims to reach 25 million children in the region with repeated doses of the vaccine. Everything possible must be done to reach all children and end polio forever,” said Chris Maher, WHO manager for polio eradication.
For more Information, please contact:
Juliette Touma, on mission to UNICEF Iraq, jtouma@unicef.org, +964-780-9-288-265 or +962-79-867-4628
Karim El-Korany, UNICEF Iraq, kelkorany@unicef.org, +964-780-92-585-42
Bahaaeldin Elkoussy, WHO polio programme, elkoussyb@who.int, +201006019316
Ajyal Al-Sultany, WHO Iraq, sultanya@who.int, +964 7809 269 506
Global Lead Coordinator for COVID-19 Vaccine Country-Readiness and Delivery, Ted Chaiban, visits Alem Gena Health Centre COVID-19 vaccination and activities. ©UNICEF Ethiopia/2022/Demissew Bizuwerk
Mass Polio Vaccination Campaign Supported by WHO and UNICEF Kicks Off in Iraq
11 August 2014 – Iraq has launched a polio immunization campaign aiming to protect over four million children under the age of 5 throughout the country against the crippling disease.
The four-day campaign, undertaken by the Ministry of Health with the support of WHO and UNICEF, is part of the national response to the re-emergence of the polio virus earlier this year which ended nearly 14 years of Iraq's polio-free status.
“This campaign comes at a critical time while the country is witnessing a huge internal exodus of children fleeing violence and turmoil,” said Marzio Babille, UNICEF Iraq Representative. “This is a top priority for UNICEF. No child should be missed. No child should be paralysed.”
The campaign aims to reach children in conflict zones, displaced communities and host populations. The on-going violence in the country has precipitated the internal displacement of nearly 1.2 million people since the beginning of the year. Almost 200,000 have been displaced only in the last three days alone. UNICEF estimates half of that number are children.
“As the violence spreads, children are being displaced up to three times with their families, often living in overcrowded conditions where they are at a much higher risk of contracting infectious diseases,” said Dr Syed Jaffar Hussain, WHO Iraq Representative. “WHO is working with the national health authorities and partners to ensure that the health of all vulnerable populations, especially children, is protected against diseases like Polio.”
With two cases of polio in Iraq and a relatively high number of unvaccinated children due to difficulties in accessing families and children, especially in conflict zones and due to social reservations, Iraq has now become vulnerable to a wider outbreak of the crippling and incurable disease. WHO and UNICEF are helping health authorities reach children in 12 governorates, including the three governorates in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq where approximately 250,000 Iraqi children and 125,000 Syrian children have taken refuge.
“Iraq is one of seven countries included in a consolidated polio response plan by WHO and UNICEF that aims to reach 25 million children in the region with repeated doses of the vaccine. Everything possible must be done to reach all children and end polio forever,” said Chris Maher, WHO manager for polio eradication.
For more Information, please contact:
Juliette Touma, on mission to UNICEF Iraq, jtouma@unicef.org, +964-780-9-288-265 or +962-79-867-4628
Karim El-Korany, UNICEF Iraq, kelkorany@unicef.org, +964-780-92-585-42
Bahaaeldin Elkoussy, WHO polio programme, elkoussyb@who.int, +201006019316
Ajyal Al-Sultany, WHO Iraq, sultanya@who.int, +964 7809 269 506
Dr. Bonnie Henry, Provincial Health Officer, receives her flu and COVID-19 vaccines in Victoria, BC, on November 1, 2024.
Updated vaccines that protect against the latest influenza strains and COVID-19 variants circulating are available for people in B.C. to help protect families, communities and the health-care system.
Learn more: news.gov.bc.ca/31753
Upasana Society in association with Rotaract club of Caduceus and MBBS and Physiotherapy students of other colleges carried out Immunization awareness camp at Kandivali East, Thakur complex on 13th February 2016. Around 50 to 60 kids got their general body check up done and finally tetanus vaccination was given to the kids from the nearby government center.
The camp started at 10:00 am and got done by around 2:30pm. Some of the girls were even given information about menstrual hygiene and will be soon provided with free sanitary napkins.
Thanks to Christina Lobo and Prince Tiwari for being there.