We have these amazing new vaccines that can save the lives of millions of children, but the health services through which they are delivered are poorly resourced and rely on weak infrastructure.
They are also massively understaffed — there’s a global shortage of at least 3.5 million health workers who are needed to put the jab in the child’s arm.
Much like the members of the A-Team, I love it when a plan comes together. But while reflecting on the Decade of Vaccines Action Plan on my journey home from the regional consultation, my thoughts turned to: What’s Next?
It would be a missed opportunity if the plan is adopted only to later flounder because people don’t know how to get started. I decided to use this blog to do a little ‘blue-sky thinking’, if you’ll excuse the business speak, and think in terms of actions.
It was something a little different for me to be invited to an immunisation conference aimed predominantly at two regions that rarely come onto my radar — the Middle East and North Africa, and Central and Eastern Europe. This part of the world faces its own unique set of health challenges.
With the promise of change, high energy, and good times ahead, the fact that Chinese New Year fell the day before an important date for many of us working on immunisation seems like a good sign.
A comprehensive report on the outcome of the immunisation workshop and decade of vaccine meeting in Namibia, listing progresses, challenges and recommendations in strengthening immunisation programmes.
Volunteers across South Sudan are battling to eradicate polio among children under five in South Sudan, through a five-day “house to house” campaign, organized by the Ministry of Health of the government of South Sudan, and the World Health Organization.
Key moment for our vaccines for all campaign as drug companies announce price cuts in vaccines.
A visit to the Liberia to see our health programmes in action underlines the importance of expanding vaccination to all the world’s poorest children.
The healthcare system in southern Sudan is struggling to get on to its feet after the devastating impact of over 20 years of war. The biggest killers of children are malaria, diarrhoea and respiratory infections. Only one in four people are within reach of a health centre and only 13% of children are immunized against killer diseases. We hosted three child health days in south-eastern Sudan where thousands of chidren were vaccinated.
The smell of yak butter and incense, the rosy red cheeks of the babies’ wind-blown faces and the snow-capped mountains framing the tawny landscape, are all forever etched in my mind.
I have just been to Tibet where the under-5 child mortality rate is at least six times higher than in Shanghai. The poorer Western regions and provinces of China still have a large burden of child deaths primarily due to pneumonia and birth asphyxia.
