The Indian government’s Subject Expert Committee (SEC) has recommended the use of the country’s home-grown COVID-19 vaccine, Covaxin, for children from the age of two. This is the first vaccine in the world to be approved for such young children. Pfizer’s vaccine was recently approved for children from the age of 12 in the US. […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) has recommended that people over the age of 60 who received the Chinese Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines, should get a third shot – possibly with another vaccine. “The use of a heterologous platforms vaccine for the additional dose may also be considered based on […] Continue reading ->
Discussions over a controversial World Trade Organization waiver on intellectual property related to COVID vaccines, treatments and other tools, have become more “constructive” said a senior WTO spokesman on Thursday, in a press briefing on the first day of the WTO’s two-day General Council meeting. There has been a “subtle shifting in the direction of […] Continue reading ->
Jamaica, Nicaragua, and Haiti were the only three member countries of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) that failed to meet the World Health Organization (WHO) target of vaccinating 10% of their populations against COVID-19 by the end of September. Around 37% of people in Latin America and the Caribbean have been fully vaccinated against […] Continue reading ->
Two jabs of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine are 90% effective against COVID-19 hospitalizations for all variants including Delta, for at least 6 months, confirmed a new study published by The Lancet. The study, conducted by Kaiser Permanete and Pfizer, found that while effectiveness against all SARS-CoV-2 infections declined over the study period, effectiveness against hospitalizations remains […] Continue reading ->
Following news that Sanofi, a French pharma company, will abandon its promising mRNA COVID-19 vaccine candidate, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) called for the corporation to transfer the vaccine technology and know-how to the WHO-led COVID-19 mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub in South Africa. Despite the existence of two approved mRNA vaccines and 13 candidates in advanced stages […] Continue reading ->
New statistics from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance show that routine immunisation programmes have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the latest data shows that there is extraordinary resilience in immunisation systems, with governments’ efforts to keep childhood vaccinations going despite the impact of the pandemic paying dividends. In the face of the pandemic, […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) aims to eliminate bacterial meningitis by 2030, primarily by increasing access to vaccinations and treatment. This emerged at Tuesday’s launch of the first-ever global ‘roadmap’ to tackle the disease, which causes inflammation of the membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord, mainly as a result of infection from bacteria […] Continue reading ->
As Africa waits for COVID-19 vaccines promised by the US and other countries to arrive, the continent’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) plans to scale up antigen testing to identify and address pandemic hotspots. “We are only at 4% vaccination rate, which means we have to continue to advance basic public health tools at our […] Continue reading ->
The Director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr Rochelle Walensky, has authorized millions of frontline workers in health care and school settings to receive a third COVD-19 vaccine booster dose- opening the gates for a much wider wide swathe of Americans, ages 18-64, to receive the controversial booster shots. Her […] Continue reading ->