Dates: 14-16 April 2026 Location: New Delhi, IndiaParticipants: Regional Consultation brought together more than 90 participants (both face-to-face and virtual) from all ten Member States, the SEAR-ITAG, vaccine manufacturers, academic institutions, regulatory authorities, and development partners. The inaugural session was attended by Dr VK Paul, ...

The African continent joined the global community in commemorating World Immunization Week under the banner of African Vaccination Week from 24–30 April 2026, to raise awareness about vaccines and vaccination. This year’s commemoration presented a valuable opportunity to review the progress made through the Big Catch-Up (BCU) initiative across the ...

With Stephanie Shendale, Scientist, WHO's Department of Immunization, Vaccines & Biologicals. 1. Who are zero-dose children, and why are they a key indicator of inequity in immunization? Zero-dose children are programmatically defined as infants who have not received their first dose of the diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DTP)-containi...

Venue: Jaipur, India. Dates:18-20 February 2026The Global Rotavirus and Pediatric Diarrhea Surveillance Meeting was held to bring together key network stakeholders to review progress and identify priorities for strengthening surveillance and response to pediatric diarrheal diseases. Participants highlighted how surveillance...

With Lisa Menning, Team Lead, Demand and Behavioural Sciences, WHO's Department of Immunization, Vaccines & Biologicals. 1. Immunization programmes have made enormous progress globally. Why is maintaining public confidence in vaccines a top priority for global health? Public confidence is essent...

Maternal and neonatal tetanus (MNT) remains a major public health problem in African region despite decades of tremendous efforts to control and eliminate the disease[1][2]. WHO estimates that in 2023, 4,585 newborns died from Neonatal Tetanus, a 75% reduction from the situation in 2000[3]. According to the Global Aim Lab, “each year, 2.6 million b...

This operational resource aims to support decision-making and implementation of integrated measles and polio vaccination campaigns. Developed in consultation with the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), the Measles & Rubella Partnership (M&RP) and Gavi, th...

Dates: 24-28 August 2026 Venue: Nagasaki, Japan Participants: Vaccine researchers and public health professionals who are involved in and/or interested in research, development, epidemiology, policy making, and implementation related to vaccines and immunisation. Content: Vaccinology: Science and Public Health is a 5-day s...

Burkina Faso, a tropical country based in West Africa, has long been struggling with malaria, a life-threatening disease spread to humans by some types of mosquitoes, making it the leading cause of consultations in health centers (43%), more than 60% of hospitalizations, and 30% of reported deaths. Between 2024 and 2025, the number of mal...

The measles outbreak in Malangwa Municipality, Sarlahi District, in January 2026 demonstrated how WHO Nepal’s technical support enabled the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) to act swiftly and decisively. Within 72 hours of the first suspected case reported on 6 January, WHO facilitated laboratory conf...

Dates: 11-12 February 2026 Venue: Cairo, Egypt Participants: • Regional Immunization Technical Advisory Group (RITAG) Members• Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) Chair • National immunization programme representatives • UNICEF Middle East and North Africa (MENA) • Eastern Mediterranean Public Health Network (EMPHNET) • ...

Four years into its strategic plan, the Measles & Rubella Partnership's Midterm Review reveals that while progress has been made, countries and global institutions must take urgent, collective action to reach elimination targets by 2030. At the end of 2024, 83 countries had eliminated measles and 99 ...

With Benedict Millinchip, Project Management Officer, Immunization, Vaccines & Biological Department, World Health Organization.1. As IA2030 reaches its midpoint, how would you assess global progress so far, and where are we most off track? During this decade, immunization has continued to be one of the most successful public hea...

In an era where misinformation about vaccines can spread as quickly as disease outbreaks themselves, restoring public trust and confidence in vaccination is more important than ever. To address this challenge, the World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a comprehensive Vaccination Information Hub, an evidence-based online ...

Dates: 13 January 2026 Venue: New DelhiParticipants: The webinar on NITAG Maturity Assessment Tool brought together more than 50 participants, representing NITAGs and their secretariats from across the Region, the National Centre for Immunization Research and Surveillance (NCIRS), the Task Force for Global Health, the Chair of the South-E...

🌍 Introducing the WHO Vaccine Evidence Compendium A new one-stop resource to support countries in collecting and accessing reliable evidence for faster, evidence-based decisions on vaccine introduction, prioritization and portfolio optimization. 🔎 What is it? The WHO Vaccine Evidence Compendium is a centralized, curated platform hosted on the NITAG...

A new module on VIEW-hub, an open-access tool developed by the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, collates data on country-level introduction and product use for products to prevent respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), including the maternal vaccine and monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). Avai...

Dates: 13 October 2025 Venue: Colombo, Sri Lanka The heads of delegations from the Member States of the SE Asia Region, including Hon’ble Minister of Health from Bangladesh, Nepal Ambassador to Sri Lanka and DPR Korea Ambassador to India, Dr Catharina Boehme, Officer-in-Charge, WHO South-East Asia, the Chief Country Delivery Officer from Gavi, the ...

This webinar, held on 01/12/2025, shares lessons and insights on catch-up immunization as part of the Big Catch-up initiative from country case studies conducted by the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research and the Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals Department of WHO with country partners in Cameroon, Nigeria, Pakistan, United Republi...

Dates: 17-18/11/2025 Where: Nepal Overview: WHO Nepal, with technical support from the WHO South-East Asia Regional Office (SEARO), convened a two-day cross-border capacity-building training for Surveillance Medical Officers (SMOs) of Nepal and India bordering Bihar State, India, in Biratnagar, Koshi Province, on 17–18 November 2025. A similar trai...