Measles deaths worldwide fell by 74% between 2000 and 2007, from an estimated 750 000 to 197 000. In addition, the Eastern Mediterranean region has cut measles deaths by a remarkable 90% — from an estimated 96 000 to 10 000 — during the same period, thus achieving the United Nations goal to reduce measles deaths by 90% by 2010, three years early.

“This achievement is a tribute to the hard work and commitment of countries in the Eastern Mediterranean region to combat measles,” said Dr Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General. “With only two years until the 2010 target date, I urge all countries affected by measles to intensify their efforts to immunize all children against the disease.”

- More information

Yaoundé — Health Ministers from countries of the African Meningitis Belt today committed themselves to introduce a highly promising candidate meningitis vaccine. The vaccine is designed to prevent periodic epidemics of the deadly disease in 25 sub-Saharan African countries.

Meeting at the World Health Organization's 58th Regional Committee for Africa, held in Yaoundé from 1-5 September, Ministers adopted the Yaoundé Declaration committing themselves to several actions. Notably, they agreed to prepare comprehensive meningitis control plans, including the introduction of the new vaccine, once available; to implement meningitis control strategies; to undertake joint action vis-à-vis the threat; to improve information exchange for epidemic response and to contribute financially to activities to control epidemics.

Some 430 million people living in the "meningitis belt" are at risk of infection with group A meningococcus, the strain mainly responsible for deadly outbreaks.

The new conjugate A meningococcal vaccine is currently in the final stages of testing and is expected to be introduced starting in 2009-10 in Burkina Faso, followed by two dozen other countries until 2015.

- Press release
- Yaoundé Declaration - in French [pdf 36kb]
- Yaoundé Declaration - in English [pdf 27kb]
- Podcast - transcript and audio file
- More information about the Meningitis Vaccine Project

Following an investigation into serious adverse events following a yellow fever vaccination campaign in Peru in late 2007, the Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety, at its meeting of 18-19 June, reiterated the need for more studies and enhanced surveillance to better understand the relative risks and benefits of vaccination against yellow fever. Another topic reviewed by experts at the meeting was the alleged association between vaccination and progression of inherited mitochondrial diseases.

- Full report (WER)
- More information on the Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety

The importance of thinking ahead and sustaining an effective and evolving partnership were key themes of the 2nd Global Meeting on implementing new and under-utilized vaccines, held on 23-25 June in Montreux, Switzerland. A broad range of issues were discussed such as appropriate presentations for new vaccines, improving coverage with new vaccines in lower middle-income countries, and integrating surveillance systems to facilitate decision-making at country level. Participants concurred that the challenges of new vaccine introduction require products, vaccine management systems and financing mechanisms tailored to individual country situations.

Working groups mapped out activities for the next 18 months on issues including sustainable financing, vaccine management, and further introduction of individual vaccines such as those to protect against pneumococcus and rotavirus.

The meeting was attended by close to 100 participants representing developing and middle-income countries, United Nations and technical agencies, donors and partners.

Details of the resultant workplan for 2008-09 and a plan of action for 2008-2012 will be made available on the WHO web site at http://www.who.int/nuvi/reference/en/index.html by 31 August 2008.

- More information on the meeting
- More information on new and under-utilized vaccines implementation

At its first meeting of 2008, WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on immunization strongly endorsed WHO's plans for continued strengthening of national regulatory authorities and expansion of activities to approve — or prequalify — vaccines for supply by United Nations agencies. This support came in recognition of the role of prequalified vaccines in attaining global immunization goals, with such vaccines currently used to vaccinate 53% of children across the world. The Group also indicated its support for a funding proposal to be submitted to the GAVI Alliance for the elimination of epidemic meningococcal meningitis A and made recommendations on furthering WHO's work to support countries in updating and optimizing their immunization schedules. The full report of the 8-10 April meeting is published today in the Weekly Epidemiological Record.

- Full Report (pdf 273kb)
- More information on SAGE

Two years before the deadline to reach the 2010 immunization goals — to reduce measles mortality and increase overall immunization coverage — governments will discuss a progress report and resolution on the Global immunization strategy. The report summarizes recent immunization achievements including Africa's success in reducing measles deaths by 91% between 2000 and 2006, thus reaching the 2010 goal four years early. Also, for the first time ever, more than 100 million infants were vaccinated with three doses of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP3) vaccine in 2006. In spite of progress, much remains to be done. In 2006, there were an estimated 242 000 measles deaths and more than 26 million infants did not receive DTP3. A global collective effort and strong political commitment is needed to ensure that all people at risk are vaccinated against vaccine-preventable diseases.

- Global immunization strategy. Report by the Secretariat
- Don't blow your future — get vaccinated - IVB's stand at the World Health Assembly

More than two million children die of pneumonia every year, making it the single biggest killer of children worldwide. In one of a series of articles on pneumonia in the May issue of the WHO Bulletin, Dr Brian Greenwood of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine considers why the control of pneumonia in children has been so neglected. He notes that two groups of effective interventions have been identified: vaccination with a safe and effective vaccine and case management, and calls for an enhanced, high-level, sustained advocacy campaign so that childhood pneumonia receives the attention it deserves. A recent step forward has been the launch of a Global action plan for the prevention and control of pneumonia (GAPP) by WHO and UNICEF. The GAPP aims to accelerate overall pneumonia prevention and control in the context of integrated interventions for child survival by identifying priority activities to reduce pneumonia mortality. Other articles in the Bulletin series look at the vaccines to prevent pneumonia and improve child survival and the safety profile of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines.

- WHO bulletin
- Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia
- WHO position paper on pneumococcal conjugate vaccine for childhood immunization [pdf 321kb]

More than 75 countries and territories will be participating in vaccination weeks in the Americas (19-26 April) and Europe (21-27 April). Vaccination campaigns against diseases such as influenza, measles, rotavirus, rubella and yellow fever are being combined with advocacy and social communication activities to increase awareness of the importance of immunization. These annual initiatives focus on improving low immunization coverage, immunizing hard-to-reach populations and promoting the use of new and existing vaccines.

- More information on Vaccination Immunization Week in the Americas
- More information on European Immunization Week
- Videos
Includes addresses by Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr Mirta Roses, Director of the Pan American Health Organization and Dr Marc Danzon, Regional Director for Europe.

The First Lady of Rwanda, H.E. Jeannette Kagame, who was appointed last year as African AIDS Vaccine Programme High Representative, paid a visit to WHO's Geneva headquarters today. She met with the heads of both WHO and UNAIDS. As High Representative, she will help the Programme reach a wider audience to inform, educate and advocate in favour of an AIDS vaccine for Africa. Her efforts will also help garner additional political and financial support. As the continent most affected by HIV/AIDS, it is critical that Africa is part of the process of HIV vaccine research and development so that a future vaccine is effective there.

- Press release [pdf 85kb]
- African AIDS Vaccine Programme

Topics for discussion at the third annual Global Immunization Meeting on 19-21 February include examining the progress towards reaching the global immunization and mortality reduction goals and addressing the challenges ahead. Participants--about 200 experts--will review the information on the final stage of polio eradication and the preparations for the post-eradication era, the remarkable progress in global measles mortality reduction and the experiences from integrating immunization activities with other health interventions, in particular the success of child health days. This three-day meeting is jointly organized by WHO, UNICEF and the GAVI Alliance and will take place in Geneva.

- Meeting agenda
- Global Immunization Vision and Strategy

Following consideration of data on the use of meningococcal B vaccines in Cuba, France, New Zealand and Norway, vaccine safety experts concluded that there was no cause for concern regarding serious adverse events. Among other topics discussed at the last meeting of the Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety, was a potential association between hepatitis B vaccination and rheumatoid arthritis. It was concluded that no convincing evidence to support a possible association had been seen.

- Full report [pdf 245kb]
- More information on the Global Advisory Committee for Vaccine Safety

The WHO Executive Board, yesterday and today, gave broad support to the report and resolution "Global immunization strategy" which marks progress towards goals contained in the Global Immunization Vision and Strategy. Bhutan, speaking on behalf of the South-East Asia Region, said that immunization has been "one of the most successful, effective and beneficial programmes" for countries in its region. The Bahamas declared that the impact of immunization was "truly a great story." New Zealand stated that immunization was a high priority and cost-effective. El Salvador said that due to vaccination it was able to reduce the number of hospitalized pneumonia patients by half. The Republic of Korea noted that it had reached 99% coverage with measles vaccine. Among concerns raised were resources to support lower middle income countries' immunization programmes; sustaining the availability of new vaccines after introduction; sufficient data quality and surveillance to monitor progress; increasing access to immunization services; and ensuring that current vaccines retain sufficient funding, as new vaccines are introduced. Several amendments, essentially to the resolution, were proposed and agreed. The progress report and draft resolution will next be considered by the World Health Assembly in May.

- Global immunization strategy[pdf 172kb]

In the field of immunization, "progress in 2006 was record-breaking," said Dr Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General, in her opening address to the Executive Board which meets this week in Geneva. She hailed childhood immunization as being one of the "biggest success stories in public health", and said that recent progess has been most impressive in low-income countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. The Director-General, after noting several success factors in this area, declared that equitable vaccination coverage can be achieved. A report and resolution entitled the Global immunization strategy will be presented to the Board.

- Director-General's opening address
- Global immunization strategy - report by the Secretariat [pdf 172kb]

Dr Jean-Marie Okwo-Bele, Director, Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals Department, addressed staff at headquarters this morning, citing major highlights from the past year: measles mortality reduction, improvement in policy-making processes, phase II trials of meningococcal conjugate vaccine, strengthening national regulatory authorities and increased uptake of underused and new vaccines. Mrs Daisy Mafubelu, Assistant Director-General, Family and Community Health, who also attended the meeting, voiced her full, and continuing support for the Department's activities, as it faces an important year. Among other things in 2008, a report and resolution entitled Global immunization strategy will go before Member States at the Executive Board (21-26 January) and World Health Assembly in May. This paper notes progress in several areas, but indicates that further efforts are required to reach established goals. Additionally, a new edition of the State of the World's Vaccines and Immunization report will be published this autumn. Dr Marie-Paule Kieny, Director, Initiative for Vaccine Research, in her management and financial review, stressed the need to prioritize and to achieve a higher degree of scientific rigor in the Department's technical work. This is in light of concerns over funding that have become more acute in the 2008-09 biennium than in the recent past.

-Global immunization strategy: Report by the Secretariat [pdf 172 KB]
-State of the World's Vaccines and Immunization report

WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on immunization (SAGE) recommended that WHO continue the development of an H5N1 stockpile as a matter of urgency. At its November 2007 meeting, it also advised that national pandemic preparedness plans be updated to enable countries to receive and efficiently deploy the stockpiled H5N1 vaccines. Other issues discussed included: performance criteria for pneumococcal vaccines eligible for the Advance Market Commitment; polio eradication; a WHO project on the categorization of vaccine-preventable diseases; typhoid fever, pneumococcal polysaccharide and rabies vaccines; and immunization safety. The full report of the 6-9 November SAGE meeting is published today in the Weekly Epidemiological Record.

Full report [pdf 341kb]
SAGE