The World Health Organization and UNICEF have sounded the alarm on the largest sustained decline in global childhood vaccinations in approximately 30 years, with 25 million infants missing out on lifesaving routine vaccines.  The percentage of children who received three doses of vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP3) – a marker for immunization coverage […] Continue reading ->
Alcohol has no benefits for people under the age of 40, but drinking a small amount of alcohol by healthy people over 40 might have some health benefits, according to a study conducted by the Global Burden of Disease study, published in The Lancet on Friday. The study – the first to report alcohol risk […] Continue reading ->
Children infected with COVID-19 maintained strong immunity against the virus for at least 18 months, according to a preprint study that was released on Wednesday. The study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, was conducted by Kahn-Sagol-Maccabi (KSM), the research and innovation center of Maccabi Healthcare Services in Israel, and was released on the preprint server […] Continue reading ->
A new $100 million initiative to identify and reach zero-dose children – those who have not received a single routine vaccine shot – has been launched today by Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance in partnership with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and World Vision (WV).  The Zero-Dose Immunization Programme (ZIP) will be led by the International […] Continue reading ->
  World Health Organization (WHO) member states endorsed a new polio eradication strategy 2022-2026 last week that aims to permanently interrupt all poliovirus transmission – both of the wild poliovirus and vaccine-derived cases.  Meanwhile, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the discovery of a second wild poliovirus case in Africa, confirmed on 18 […] Continue reading ->
More stable funding for WHO, but only incremental progress on reforms in global pandemic response are expected out of the upcoming World Health Assembly, where member states also will debate and discuss over two dozen other critical health issues that don’t always make the headlines.   The 75th World Health Assembly, WHO’s annual meeting of member […] Continue reading ->