IVAC Collaborates with Global Partners to Tackle Cervical Cancer Worldwide, cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer among women, with an estimated 604,000 new cases and 342,000 cervical cancer-related deaths reported in 2020. To help address this growing health problem, CHIC, the Coalition to Strengthen the HPV Immunization Community, recently organized a South Asia-focused meeting in New Delhi, India, to support peer-to-peer exchange, learning, and engagement around the prevention and control of HPV infections. With over 300 representatives from 34 countries, the three-day symposium tackled a range of challenges including vaccine hesitancy and how social media can both help and hurt vaccine acceptance.
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As health officials rush to control an outbreak of measles in India, scientists say the nation is set to miss its deadline of eliminating the disease by 2023 because millions of children didn’t get vaccinated in 2020. “Now, it is a Herculean job to be able to catch up everyone who missed,” says Dr. Anita Shet, a pediatric infectious-diseases specialist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. |
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COVID Vaccine Ambassador Training: How to Talk to Parents, a course led by IVAC Deputy Director Dr. Rupali Limaye, was included in a list of the most popular free online courses in 2023. This training course is meant to prepare parents of school-age children, PTAs, community members, and school staff to be Vaccine Ambassadors and promote vaccine acceptance in their communities.
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Listen to a new episode of the Public Health On Call podcast where Dr. Shaun Truelove, an infectious disease epidemiologist, returns to talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the latest models for the COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub. They discuss the possibility of another COVID surge this winter as well as what models can tell us about other respiratory diseases like influenza and RSV, and factors like the influenza and bivalent vaccines.
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WORLD PNEUMONIA DAY 2022:
IMPROVING ACCESS TO PCVs
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For World Pneumonia Day in 2022, IVAC brought awareness to the burden of pneumonia, especially in countries that lack access to PCVs due to their high cost. Better access to PCVs will stop children from suffering from pneumonia, a preventable illness.
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FACTSHEETS ON COVID-19 VACCINES
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In a series of three briefs, researchers at IVAC, WHO, and CEPI summarized findings detailing how well COVID-19 vaccines protect against the Omicron variant. In general, COVID-19 vaccines work less well against Omicron than other variants, but both mRNA and inactivated versions do provide good protection against severe disease over many months.
In partnership with the Asian Development Bank, IVAC has developed factsheets summarizing key measures for COVID-19 vaccines such as effectiveness and protection against severe disease. |
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Factors influencing the prioritization of vaccines by policymakers in low and middle-income countries: A scoping review
By Dominique Guillaume, Diane Meyer, Dur-E-Nayab Waheed, Meike Schlieff, Kirthini Muralidharan, Victoria B Chou, and Rupali Limaye
In this paper, the authors reviewed the factors that influence decision-making among policymakers for the introduction of new vaccines in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Across existing research, the most common criteria considered for new vaccine introduction included disease burden, costs, and political prioritization, coupled with economic factors related to vaccine price, affordability, and financing. The research has identified two additional criteria in the decision-making process for vaccine introduction: communications and sociocultural considerations. |
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