Global Health
GSK awarded malaria vaccine contract by UNICEF
The pharmaceutical company GSK was awarded a contract for the first supply of a malaria vaccine by UNICEF in 2022. The contract has a value of up to $170 m
Malawi’s cholera outbreak sustained through winter
The beginning of Malawi’s cholera outbreak in March 2022 came at the end of rainy season. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Health suggested that cases vary.
Study reveals Covid-19 vaccinations safe for pregnancy
A study published in The Lancet in August 2022 concluded that Covid-19 vaccinations had a “good safety profile”. This was concluded during an attempt…
Professor Hotez warns against anti-vaccine activism
In August 2022 Dr Peter Hotez wrote an article in Nature exploring the dire consequences of America’s “anti-vaccine activism”
Positive partnerships for malaria prevention
Malaria threatens almost half of the world’s population, with the WHO estimating that the number of deaths in 2020 reached 627,000.
Climate health is global health, study concludes
In August 2022 a study in Nature concluded that 58% of infectious diseases we face are “aggravated by climatic hazards”. The authors identify “global distress” caused by “human vulnerability to pathogenic diseases”. This literature study describes how “empirical...
Gavi’s reasons to be optimistic: routine rises
After woeful statistics of global vaccine uptake decreases, and the news from UNAIDS that the AIDS response is “under threat”, Gavi published an analysis of 2021 immunisation rates. As 2020 saw the “biggest drop in routine immunisation coverage”, we had little reason...
Science suggests components for pandemic disruption treaty
WHO member states can expect an update from an Intergovernmental Negotiating Body in August 2022 on an "initial draft" of a treaty to "break the pandemic cycle". In July 2022, Drs Alexandra Phelan and Colin Carlson published a recommended 12 elements for this treaty....
Hear from our WVC 2022 speaker: Dr Jennifer Nuzzo
DrPh Jennifer Nuzzo, Professor at Brown University School of Public Health and speaker at the World Vaccine Congress 2022, warned that we're not ready to prevent another pandemic. Unless public health officials take concrete steps, she fears we will experience more...
Hear from our WVC 2022 speaker: Dr David Kaslow
Dr David Kaslow, Chief Scientific Officer of PATH and speaker at the World Vaccine Congress 2022, suggested the successful deployment of vaccines against future pandemics relied on leaders developing a better system for vaccinating people. “It’s deplorable that at...
Vaccine inequity strikes Africa once again
It appears that lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic have been ignored, certainly regarding vaccine distribution. Africa is the only continent where monkeypox is endemic. Yet according to Dr Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, the acting director of Africa CDC, it hasn’t received...
Danger ahead! The forgotten pandemic: AIDS
The warning from UNAIDS released in July 2022 features an alarming front cover, with the words “in danger” repeated across the page. This might seem dramatic to some, until one opens the document and examines the startling statistics presented by Winnie Byanyima,...
Vaccine fatigue: are we nearly there yet?
We’ve pushed against vaccine hesitancy, encouraged increased uptake of dose after dose, booster after dose. Booster after booster. What next? Although general acceptance of Covid-19 vaccinations has been positive, vaccine hesitancy towards these and other routine...
Global vaccine uptake: low, slow, room to grow
The Covid-19 pandemic has swept across the world with impunity over the past three years, bringing to light its fair share of hard pills to swallow. After that terrible trend of celebrities suggesting that everyone was in the same boat it is abundantly clear that...
Me before you before us: vaccine nationalism
The word stockpiling marked its place the public vocabulary thanks to its increased used during the Covid-19 pandemic. From secret personal stashes of hand sanitiser or self-raising flour to national hordes of PPE, we have come to associate it with greed and...
Why are covid vaccinations in pregnant women so low?
The Covid-19 pandemic presented the scientific community with one of the fastest changing challenges of the 21st century. Scientists responded with agility, producing a vaccine that was effective, safe, and as close to universally available as possible. However, for...
Marking World Hepatitis Day, 28th July 2022
World Hepatitis Day is on July 28th, marking the birthday of Dr Baruch Blumberg, the Nobel-prize winning scientist who discovered HBV and developed a diagnostic test and initial vaccine. The theme for World Hepatitis Day 2022 is “Bringing hepatitis care closer to...
Fighting fear with facts or feelings? Vaccine hesitancy.
In our previous article on vaccine hesitancy, we identified the ‘5Cs’ associated with a reluctance or refusal to accept vaccination. Vaccine inequity and vaccine hesitancy come together as “part of a complex matrix of social norms, economic concerns, historical...
Immune to the science? The ‘5C’ drivers of vaccine hesitancy
Vaccine hesitancy is described by SAGE as a “delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite availability of vaccination services”. It might also be considered a “state of indecision and uncertainty that precedes a decision to become (or not become) vaccinated”. In...
