A new study, published in the journal PLoS Computational Biology, presents a mathematical behaviour-incidence model based on game theory and social learning which can predict the course of vaccine scares in a population, including when they will peak and how long they will last. One of the professors, Dr Chris Bauch, behind the development of the model explains in an interview with…

The European Region has set a goal to eradicate measles by 2015, but in recent years we have seen rising rates of this disease in several countries. In the article ‘Measles: Back to the Future of Public Health?’ David Katz talks about the reasons behind such outbreaks and explains how the actual success of vaccines can sometimes be their own worst enemy. He writes, “Why is it we are apathetic about vaccines, and less concerned about the diseases they prevent than with the side effects they…

Have a look at the conversation between David Walliams and Bill Gates, where Bill Gates among other things tells about the delivery of vaccines in poor countries; the huge reduction in death among children younger than 5 over the last decades and GAVI's pledging conference last year.

Read the full article…

Generations of children have grown up singing the music and lyrics of Richard and Robert Sherman who wrote, among other things, the song “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down" for the magical Mary Poppins. The idea for these lyrics actually originated from the oral polio vaccine, as the brothers revealed in an interview in 2005:

Robert's son had just been given the polio vaccine. "I said, 'Oh, did…