One in five children in Africa is missing out on life-saving vaccines. That's according to a report on Wednesday by the World Health Organisation. Its release comes amid confirmation this week that dozens of children in Lagos have died - from measles. Officials have been gathering today in Addis, to discuss strategies for universal immunization. CCTV's Girum Chala has the story.

Getting vaccinated against rubella before getting pregnant will protect unborn babies from Congenital Rubella Syndrome (CRS), which can cause serious birth defects, including blindness, deafness and heart defects. www.paho.org

How do vaccines prevent disease — even among people too young to get vaccinated? It's a concept called "herd immunity," and it relies on a critical mass of people getting their shots to break the chain of infection. Health researcher Romina Libster shows how herd immunity contained a deadly outbreak of H1N1 in her hometown. (In Spanish with subtitles.)

Anytime a child is paralysed by polio in any country, the World Health Organization moves fast to stop the virus. From gathering information to coordinating vaccination campaigns to delivering two drops of polio vaccine into the mouth of every child, the outbreak response protects children against this paralysing disease. Find out more at www.polioeradication.org.

On a visit to India, Dr. Orin Levine of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation saw the impact of eVIN, an important tool to modernize and strengthen India’s vaccine logistics systems. eVIN is an electronic, real-time monitoring system that helps healthcare officials ensure adequate supply of vaccines to every child in need, being rolled out in 12 states in the country.

It takes a long boat journey up the Mekong River to reach some of Lao PDR’s most isolated children. Learn more: http://www.gavi.org/?utm_source=youtu...

Some children live in places that are harder to reach with polio vaccines than others. In every vulnerable country, the World Health Organization helps make sure that every child receives polio vaccines; even those who are on the move, living in conflict zones or in remote communities. Find out more at www.polioeradication.org.

Action plans prioritize the corrective actions you must take to improve coverage and can help you turn corrective strategies into feasible activities. Learn how to help your facility overcome problems and reach its coverage goals. 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.

Global health authorities confirmed six new cases of polio in both Kenya and Somalia. These are the first cases outside of polio-endemic countries—Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan -- in 2013. Global health workers are rapidly responding to stop this outbreak.

Although Tunisia has not had polio cases for many years, it is in the same region as two polio endemic countries--Pakistan and Afghanistan. Until polio is eradicated from these two countries, Tunisia continues to be at risk of an importation of poliovirus. In September 2014, in order to ensure the children in Tunisia had the best possible immunity against polio, Tunisia added the Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) to the national immunization schedule. Tunisia 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.

Dr. Chris Murray from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation explains the amazing drop in child mortality since 2000 and how the Millennium Development Goals helped.

Linked to increasing immunisation coverage with vaccines such as the pentavalent, Madagascar is one of just six countries in the world to reduce its child mortality rates by more than 60% between 1990 and 2009. Video by GAVI.

Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus elimination from India. Reducing maternal and neonatal tetanus to less than one case per 1 000 live births in all 675 districts demonstrates India’s strong commitment and leadership that helped improve access to immunization, antenatal care services and skilled birth attendance in the most vulnerable populations – the poor, the remote and isolated communities.

India aims to immunize 27 million new children each year. This enormous effort depends on ensuring a consistent supply of vaccines, stored at recommended temperatures, right from the manufacturer down to the mother and child. In partnership with GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, UNDP is providing support to help the Government of India reach its goal through an innovative electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (eVIN) that digitalizes entire vaccine stocks and tracks their movement. In this video, nurses in Jaipur, India discuss the positive impact eVIN has had on their everyday administrative duties.

Umit Kartoglu reviews temperature monitoring devices used in a typical vaccine cold chain and analyses how the readings relate to each other when there are more than one device at a particular point. This analysis is done from the VVM perspective.

Dr. Berkley describes how the work being done by Gavi--a public-private partnership aimed at promoting access to vaccines for children in the world's poorest countries--intersects with the goal of advancing UHC. JCIE/USA Executive Director Jim Gannon interviews him on the sidelines of a December 16, 2015 JCIE conference on “Universal Health Coverage in the New Development Era.”

obb Butler, Programme Manager for the Vaccine-preventable Diseases and Immunization Programme at the WHO Regional Office for Europe, visited Sarajevo on April 25, 2017 on the occasion of World Immunization Week and participated in the work of the Central Assembly, attended by more than 80 experts, representatives of health authorities and Professional immunization bodies. The interview answers some of the biggest concerns about immunization.