Ricardo Cortés Lastra, Member of the European Parliament, looks at the vital role of immunization from a global perspective.

This week we are celebrating immunisation week.  What best occasion to come back on the progress made but also to look at challenges for scaling up and improve child health.

Everyday 19,000 children die, mainly of preventable diseases. The world has made progress over the last 25 years since, with a 40%…

Misinformation and complacency are at the core of the current measles outbreaks in the United Kingdom. Fortunately, hundreds of adults and children are lining up to get the protection they missed in recent years. But the threat is far from over: despite massive turnout for MMR vaccination drop-in sessions organized in response to the outbreaks, Public Health Wales warns that 3,800 children have still not had both doses of the MMR vaccine. Read more:…

Von

Birte Bödeker – Robert Koch-Institut

Britta Reckendrees – Bundeszentrale für gesundheitliche Aufklärung 

(see English version below)

Wir freuen uns, dass auch dieses Jahr wieder tolle Aktivitäten im Rahmen der EIW angeboten werden! In Deutschland werden sowohl auf Bundes- als auch auf Landes- und kommunaler Ebene die verschiedensten Aktivitäten durchgeführt. Von Pressearbeit über eine bundesweite Aussendung von…

Rotaviruses infect nearly every child by the age of 3–5 years and are globally the leading cause of severe, dehydrating diarrhoea in children under 5 years. WHO estimates that in 2008, approximately 453 000 rotavirus gastroenteritis (RVGE)-associated child deaths occurred worldwide. The large majority of children who die from this disease live in low-income countries. In a recently released position paper, WHO recommends that rotavirus vaccines be introduced in all…

Widespread use of measles vaccine since 1980 has led to a substantial decline in global measles morbidity and mortality. Over 10 years after measles were eliminated in the WHO Region of the Americas, outbreaks continue in Europe and other WHO Regions pointing to serious gaps in immunization coverage. WHO urges national governments and partners to ensure that measles elimination efforts receive high priority and adequate resources.  

Read more in the WHO…

Measles outbreaks in the United Kingdom are showing no signs of slowing down, and a spate of recent news articles have drawn attention to this fact. The Health Protection Agency says 964 measles cases were reported in the first six months of the year, which is more than 12-month totals for many of the past 15 years. Uptake rates of the MMR vaccine have improved in some areas, but the target rates are still not being met. This is prompting HPA officials to remind parents about MMR vaccination…

The medical director of the Canadian Olympic team was recently quoted in The Globe and Mail as saying, “One of the things we’ve always said to the athletes is, the Olympics is where the viruses of the world come to meet." Bob McCormack is warning his team of Canadian athletes to be especially careful about…

This family's experience with measles is a stark reminder of just why the MMR jab is so important: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-18745872

The UEFA European Football Championships have come to an end. While the entire nation of Spain is still celebrating an impressive victory, things have quieted down significantly in Poland and Ukraine, the two host countries. But the National Institute of Public Health in Poland still has EURO 2012 on the brain. Following the UEFA championships, the Institute is conducting an online survey to see whether and how effectively public health messages related to the event reached their target…

Today, the WHO European Region marks 10 years since it was certified free of poliomyelitis (polio). Stopping transmission of indigenous wild poliovirus in the 53 countries in the Region was a landmark in the effort to eradicate polio globally, and helped accelerate international momentum towards that goal.

Dr George Oblapenko played a pivotal role in the certification process. He joined WHO/Europe in 1990 as a medical officer in the area of polio elimination. On retiring…

Thank you to all those who participated in last week's Live Q&A session on building trust in vaccines. It was a very engaging discussion and there were a number of interesting topics covered during the 90-minute session. 

Following on the success of this initial Q&A, we plan to host additional sessions in the coming months. We hope even more campaign site members will choose to join in and share their thoughts during our next Live Q&A.

In the meantime, the full…

Following the Region-wide success of European Immunization Week 2012, the WHO Regional Office for Europe, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the UNICEF Regional Office for CEE/CIS invite you to participate in a Live Q&A session on the EIW campaign site.

The Live Q&A will take place on Thursday, 10 May 2012 from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. (CEST - Copenhagen).…

World Immunization Week is a time for promoting the value of vaccines, discussing critical issues and, well, going out and vaccinating.  In celebration of the tenth anniversary of Vaccination Week in the Americas, I had the pleasure of traveling to Honduras with Bill Gates, Sr. and colleagues from the Bill &…

The global immunization coverage rate in 1990 – the target date set by Universal Childhood Immunization – is estimated to have been at about 75% (although at the time many thought it was closer to the goal of 80%.)  Now, more than twenty years later, the global rate is at approximately 85%.  Aggregate rates are…

Dr. Robin Biellik is an expert in vaccine-preventable disease control, elimination…

As part of WHO/Europe’s activities on a regional level, we have scheduled a "week of guest bloggers" for the EIW campaign site. Each day during EIW we will feature one of these bloggers, who will share a variety of perspectives and will address different issues related to immunization.

Guest bloggers will include representatives from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the UN Foundation’s Shot@Life campaign, the GAVI Alliance and Measles Initiative. WHO/Europe partner…

The television newsmagazine show "Tonight with Trevor McDonald" recently produced a very interesting and compelling piece about vaccine-preventable diseases and immunization in the U.K. It is well worth spending 20 minutes to watch. In particular, keep an eye out for the important role frontline health care workers are playing in the country's efforts to rebuild vaccination coverage rates.

Click …

WHO/Europe today received confirmation that, for the first time since the introduction of European Immunization Week (EIW) in 2005, all 53 countries of the WHO European Region will take part in the initiative. The fact that all 53 countries have joined EIW provides a compelling display of the Region’s unified commitment to raising awareness about immunization and spreading EIW’s central message: Prevent. Protect. Immunize.

After falling just short of this achievement last year…

WHO/Europe's Vaccine-preventable diseases and Immunization programme has launched an online Immunization Resource Centre ahead of EIW 2012. The documents contained in this Resource Centre are designed to assist health professionals in their day-to-day work as it relates to immunization. Some of the resources are meant specifically for health workers, for information and training purposes. Others are meant to be shared by health workers with patients, in order to provide them with…

Last September, Save the Children orchestrated the creation of a "human mosaic" in Times Square (New York City). This mosaic shared the simple but powerful message: "Health workers save lives."

Without health workers, no vaccine can be administered, no life-saving drugs prescribed and no woman can be given expert care during childbirth. In terms of…