World Immunization Week: The Urgent Need to Restore and Strengthen Routine Immunization
IVAC joins the immunization community during World Immunization Week in calling for renewed focus and urgency toward restoring routine immunization. The backsliding caused by the COVID-19 pandemic reminds us how critical it is to reach children and families with life-saving vaccinations. We must partner with these communities to increase access to routine immunization so they remain protected from preventable diseases.
As part of this year’s World Immunization Week, IVAC is hosting a webinar to highlight exciting new vaccines and immunization technologies that are on the horizon. An international panel of distinguished experts will present on cutting-edge developments in vaccines. The experts will cover new vaccines that have the potential to greatly reduce the impact of devastating infectious diseases like tuberculosis, malaria, Shigella, and RSV, as well as groundbreaking technologies like microarray patches, which have the potential to dramatically increase access to vaccines and prevent future outbreaks. These innovations have the potential to save millions of lives and demonstrate the importance of funding immunization research.
To learn more about next-generation vaccines, check out this factsheet.
Join us in promoting how #VaccinesWork during #WorldImmunizationWeek by sharing these resources and social media messages on the importance of restoring and strengthening routine immunization across the globe.
Later this week, the Bloomberg School of Public Health’s award-winning podcast, Public Health On Call, will release a new episode with IVAC Executive Director Dr. William Moss to discuss the recent measles resurgence.
Vaccine Day at JHU Highlights Work to Advance Immunizations
Earlier this month, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health hosted its annual Vaccine Day event. The keynote address was presented by Dr. Kate O'Brien, former Executive Director of IVAC and the Director for the Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals at WHO.
IVAC faculty and students presented their research during a Vaccine Day poster session. IVAC's Brooke Farrenkopf received the first prize for student posters for her work with Drs. Chizoba Wonodi and Daniel Ali. Congratulations to Brooke and the team!
Consortium of Universities for Global Health Conference
This month, several IVAC faculty members attended CUGH 2023, a conference hosted by the Consortium of Universities for Global Health. They presented several posters highlighting IVAC projects including VIEW-hub, VoICE, the Maternal Immunization Readiness Project, and ongoing work on vaccine hesitancy. IVAC Deputy Director Dr. Rupali Limaye was also a panel member at the conference's Pulitzer Center Communications Workshop, which brought together health journalists and health communication experts to speak about best practices for communicating your research to the media.
Watch the recording from NACCHO's recent webinar on digital tools and strategies for increasing COVID-19 vaccine confidence and uptake as students return to school in the fall. The presentation featured IVAC's Emily Miller and also included two case studies from health officials using customized VIRA chatbots in Los Angeles, California, and Charlotte, North Carolina.
