Afghanistan and Pakistan are two of the remaining three countries where polio hasn’t yet been eliminated. Courageous polio vaccinators travel to remote villages often in dangerous areas to immunize millions of children. Thanks to the heroic effort of these vaccinators the world is on the brink of eradicating this disease.

Getting vaccines to children in developing countries is the key to preventing pneumococcal disease, which kills 800,000 to 1 million children worldwide ever year. This video explains how five national governments, GAVI alliance partners, and the Gates Foundation are using a new approach to financing called Advance Market Commitments to get affordable vaccines to the developing world.

Since their introduction over the past several years, rotavirus vaccines have been saving lives from the leading cause of severe childhood diarrhea. In April 2016, the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases published new data from several countries recording evidence of this lifesaving impact (http://bit.ly/26XzI3V). We talked to researchers from PATH and the US CDC to understand the importance of rotavirus vaccines within an integrated approach to defeat diarrheal disease.

Two vaccines have brought us to the brink of a polio-free world: the oral polio vaccine and the inactivated polio vaccine. Learn how these vaccines work and the different, complementary roles they have to play in delivering a polio-free world. This is one of a series of six videos on what is being done to secure a polio-free world: from the vaccines that are being used to stop polio; to how the oral polio vaccine is being phased out from April 2016 to remove any risk of vaccine-derived polioviruses, starting with the switch from trivalent to bivalent oral polio vaccine in April 2016; and how securely containing polioviruses within laboratories and vaccine manufacturing sites will keep every last child protected, long into the future.

Often related to distance and hardship in transit, parents in developing countries will overcome tremendous obstacles for the chance to vaccinate their children. This video follows the journey of the vaccine and of the recipient in a remote village in Haiti.

In September 2014, Nepal became the first Gavi eligible country in the world to introduce the Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV). But in Nepal, the introduction of IPV was seen as a piece of the larger strategy to strengthen the entire immunization system. In this video, learn about the strategy that immunization workers in Nepal are using to ensure that every child in every village receives every vaccine. Nepal is not alone in their efforts. By the end of 2015, more than 100 other countries will also be taking this important step towards polio eradication and introducing IPV.

The Ministry of Health in Benin has used an innovative approach that combines modeling with qualitative and quantitative assessment to identify the strategic direction for optimizing the vaccine supply chain. These guidelines have been implemented for demonstration purposes in the Comé health area with the support of the Agence de Médecine Préventive (AMP) via the LOGIVAC project. The activities carried out since 2013 have had a positive impact on the performance of the health system, in particular by ensuring better availability of quality vaccines in health facilities

Immunization Academy now offers more than 30 short, practical training videos on Data Monitoring in Swahili at https://www.immunizationacademy.com/sw/videos/category/planning.

“What do you say to parents who decline or refuse HPV vaccination of their children?” Dr. Alix Casler, FAAP, offers her responses to parents who delay or reject HPV vaccine during this segment of the “How I Recommend HPV Vaccine” series.

This webinar describes what TechNet 21 is and how it is used to discuss ideas regarding all aspects of immunization systems. Illustrations of how resources can be accessed and used as well as how one can add and create their own collection of resources to share with others are covered. it should be of interest to both technical and non-technical personnel with an interest in current thinking in immunization systems.

A short 3 minute video explaining how OpenLMIS is helping change health outcomes by making high-quality data available when and where it's needed most.

Developed by the MEASURE Evaluation Strategic Information for South Africa project, Inconsistent and incomplete data gathered at health facilities compound problems as managers try to make decisions based on evidence. Developed by the MEASURE Evaluation Strategic Information for South Africa project, this video explains how Consistency, Correctness, and Completeness leads to better data, better decisions, and better health care.

In 2016, 155 countries and territories from around the world made history in a coordinated global health effort that took us one step closer to achieving polio eradication. During a two-week time period in April, the health sector swapped out one type of polio vaccine for another, in what is known as “the switch.”

Fewer children in the United States are getting vaccinated. That’s bad news for those kids, and also for public health in general. Often, the response is to argue and debate and get angry at people who are we see as making terrible, irrational decisions. Instead of doing that, let’s use science to understand why this is happening in the first place.

World Polio Day is a day when we celebrate the health workers and volunteers who are going to great lengths to fight polio. Never before in the history of polio have so few children in so few countries contracted the crippling virus – but we cannot rest until the number of cases is zero.

More than 1.7 billion doses of polio vaccine were delivered to children last year alone and continued focus is key to the complete eradication of polio.

The BID Initiative is partnering with users throughout the health system to introduce policies and practices aimed at creating a data-use culture. From community micro-training videos to data use campaigns to targeted, supportive supervision; health workers use data to make better decisions on service delivery and ways to improve care.

Through the BID Learning Network (BLN), many countries in sub-Saharan Africa participate in the design and testing of BID tools and interventions. The BLN enables peer-to-peer learning exchanges to ensure BID Initiative’s solutions will be relevant for and adopted by other countries interested in improving their health programs through better data and decision-making.

The BID Initiative leverages sustainable and scalable solutions such as a national electronic immunization system and supply chain tools to put the power of data in the hands of health workers so they can do their jobs more effectively and efficiently.

The roll out of rotavirus vaccines in Africa has begun. In this five-minute film, immunisation experts, health workers and mothers from Sudan and Tanzania talk about the need for the vaccines and their hope for the future.

An important characteristic of Brazil is that it is a continental country, a very large country. This makes it necessary to structure a national cold chain network to manage the distribution and deliver vaccines meeting quality standards to the end user.

How long did it take to manufacture a new meningitis vaccine? In this video, about 90 seconds. We've sped up time to show you the MenAfriVac™ vaccine being manufactured by Serum Institute of India Ltd. at their headquarters in Pune, India. Watch as the Serum workers wave goodbye to the first packages of vaccine, bound for Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger.

The case of the English physician and surgeon Edward Jenner (1749-1823) is one of perseverance and method, but also of an audacity that today would have put him behind bars. Contrary to what is sometimes presented, the idea of vaccinations did not arise as a “eureka” moment. In Jenner’s epoch, variolation, or inoculation, was practiced using smallpox scabs or pus in healthy people to protect them from what was then a terrible plague.

The search for the poliovirus is triggered when any child is found with acute flaccid paralysis. From the most remote communities to the laboratory, the World Health Oranization makes sure that the pieces of the surveillance system work together so that if the poliovirus is circulating anywhere in the world it will be found – and stopped

The BID Initiative is partnering with the Ministry of Health in Zambia and Tanzania to introduce a series of data use and data quality interventions to improve immunization services. With better data, health workers can avoid stock-outs, identify defaulting patients, and better measure their performance against neighboring facilities. Learn more at: www.bidinitiative.org.

This brief video describes the South African routine health information system, which collects data at health facilities and transmits it onward to the national Department of Health, examining why maintaining data quality is crucial along this path.

Across the Middle East, countless people have been working tirelessly to stop the polio outbreak that paralysed 28 children in Syria and Iraq in 2013 and 2014. This World Polio Day, we say thank you to all those who have done so much to protect children against this paralysing disease across Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey. World Polio Day is an opportunity to reflect on the incredible progress made towards polio eradication in the past year and to pay tribute to those whose efforts made this progress possible.

"Twin Voices" by Janice Flood Nichols, provides a unique and timely glimpse into polio, a virus that killed and maimed millions of children and adults during the twentieth century. In 1953, polio struck DeWitt, NY (an eastern suburb of Syracuse) with a vengeance. In a first grade class of twenty-four students, eight children contracted the disease -- one child, Frank Flood Jr., died sixty-one hours after admission to City Hospital; another first grader and her older sister died several years later of complications. Frankie's twin sister, Janice, was admitted to the hospital on the evening of his burial. Diagnosed with paralytic polio, Janice recovered. She participated in the 1954 Salk vaccine trial, as one of nearly two million "Polio Pioneers." Today, she remains dedicated to the goal of worldwide polio eradication. Twin Voices tells the story of polio, the disease, and the story of one family's bout with the killer, in multiple "voices."

See how UNICEF and partners travel to the most remote areas to make sur that #everychild gets protected against polio. Here in a pygmy community in the Central African Republic.

If it is your job to manage coverage rates for health facilities, you will want to know how to use data for action. Understanding what the data is telling you will help you improve your immunization program. This video will help you come up with solutions to problems, implement those solutions, monitor how well you implement, and improve your immunization coverage rates. This EPI training video provides knowledge and skills based on WHO guidance (for example, Mid-Level Manager and Immunization in Practice modules) to support routine immunization in the field. Find more at www.immunizationacademy.com.

What is public health surveillance? Why is it important? And why are ethics an essential part of ensuring that surveillance is done well? Watch our video for the answers to these questions and more.

Since the creation of the global stockpile in 2013, more than 5 million doses of oral cholera vaccine (OCV) have been successfully used in various outbreaks and humanitarian emergencies. The use of oral cholera vaccines is an additional tool to the classic cholera control measures: it should be systematically considered in both endemic countries as well as during outbreaks and emergencies.

For World Polio Day on 24 October, Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization, thanks all those working to achieve a polio-free world and improve the world in a permanent way. Read more about polio eradication: http://www.polioeradication.org

Avoid stock-outs or over-stocking! Learn how to ensure vaccines and supplies are used before they expire, that the vaccine vial monitor status is recorded whenever a vaccine is sent or received. This EPI training video provides knowledge and skills based on WHO guidance (for example, Mid-Level Manager and Immunization in Practice modules) to support routine immunization in the field. Find more at www.immunizationacademy.com.

This July, it was reported that a woman from Washington State in the US had died of measles. It was the first measles death in the country in 12 years and comes after a huge spike in the number of cases of the disease. There is little doubt about what has caused the rise. The 'anti-vax' movement – activists who refuse vaccines believing them to be harmful to children – is vocal, vibrant and virulent. But with their claims proven time and again to be without any scientific basis, why are the 'anti-vaxxers' still going – and apparently growing?

The first ever vaccine was created when Edward Jenner, an English physician and scientist, successfully injected small amounts of a cowpox virus into a young boy to protect him from the related (and deadly) smallpox virus. But how does this seemingly counterintuitive process work? Kelwalin Dhanasarnsombut details the science behind vaccines.

Vaccines are not just for kids - they're for life. It's hard to keep track of all the ways that we protect the people that we love and the things that matter most to us. When we were kids, we learned that protection is important at all ages. Now it’s our turn to teach our kids the value of protection. Vaccines are another way that we can protect our loved ones. In fact vaccines do such a good job that its easy to forget how effective and important they are. Thanks to vaccines smallpox has been completely eradicated - and polio has almost gone too. While measles is almost completely gone in North and South America you and your loved ones are still at risk if you live in Europe.

Herd immunity works for vaccinations as it does Facebook share fact checking. Dr. Lindsay Diamond discusses the risk about the vaccination choice that parents face. What is risk and what does community do to our choices?

While the majority of Americans vaccinate their children, there are many parents who selectively choose the vaccines to be given or who decline vaccinations altogether. This Forum event, held a few days after the September 10 airing of the NOVA film Vaccines: Calling the Shots, examined the drivers of public perceptions of vaccinations, the threats that vaccine-preventable illnesses pose, and the steps to be taken to restore trust in one of public health’s greatest weapons against infectious diseases.

Find out if cold-chain equipment issues are affecting the overall performance of your immunization program. Learn what to do to resolve the problems. This EPI training video provides knowledge and skills based on WHO guidance (for example, Mid-Level Manager and Immunization in Practice modules) to support routine immunization in the field. Find more at www.immunizationacademy.com.
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Use data to identify problems with your stock management system, determine the causes of the problems, and come up with solutions.

This EPI training video provides knowledge and skills based on WHO guidance (for example, Mid-Level Manager and Immunization in Practice modules) to support routine immunization in the field. Find more at www.immunizationacademy.com.

Getting your vaccines seems easy, until that is you consider the obstacles that prevent millions around the globe getting access to medication that we may take for granted.

This video underscores the need to invest in immunization supply chains to ensure every child in Africa can receive lifesaving vaccines. #vaccineswork

Polio cases have been reduced by 99.9% worldwide since 1988. But continuing efforts to end the disease are critical to eradicating polio for good. We've immunized over 2.5 billion children in the world's most sophisticated global health initiative. Help us make history by getting to zero. Learn more at endpolio.org

Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq, the prime minister's focal person on polio eradication, explaining why routine immunisation is critical to Pakistan's efforts to eradicate polio in 2016.