International Vaccine Access Center at JHSPH

A historic day in the fight to ! Cameroon has become the first of many countries to introduce the RTS,S malaria vaccine into its routine immunisation programme. We’re proud to work with partners to support the roll out of the world’s first malaria vaccine:

We are working with 20 African countries that are aiming to introduce the vaccine in 2024. In total these 20 countries will aim to reach approximately 6.6 million children with the malaria vaccine through 2024 and 2025.

"Today represents a historic milestone as we will finally be able to offer a new tool in the fight against a disease that has impacted the African continent most of all, accounting for 95% of all deaths globally" - Aurélia Nguyen.

International Health Master's Programs Information Session  

World Immunization Week 2023 (Webinar): Game Changers–Vaccine Innovations on the Horizon | IVAC When: April 26th, 10:00am-11:30am EDT Registration: https://jh.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_t9sySAZwQoiJXZMd4W6z-Q Description: As part of this year’s World Immunization Week (2023), the International Vaccine Access Center is hosting a webinar to highlight exciting new vaccines and immunization tec...

Why getting a COVID vaccine in the nose might work better Scientists are hopeful a new type of vaccine in development could give us a better shot of fighting COVID-19, without involving any type of shot at all.

International Women's Day: 3 Women in Vaccine Science We Look Up To - Shot@Life Women have always been integral when it comes to immunization — including mothers who seek out vaccines for their children, researchers and scientists who work to deliver these vaccines, and healthcare workers on the frontlines of global immunization initiatives. With a rise in women participating...

Celebrating a Vaccine Hero on International Women’s Day - Shot@Life Dr. Chizoba Wonodi speaking at the 9th Annual Shot@Life Champion

Number of COVID-19 vaccinations going down - WBBJ TV It's been three years since coronavirus impacted the world forever. The question is, where are we now and how are vaccines still preventing the spread of the virus?

Winners include IVAC's VIRA chatbot team!🎉 Congrats on winning a Silver Award in the “Innovation” category, which recognizes new products and services that boost awareness about health issues.

Since its conception in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic’s peak, VIRA has used machine learning to grow the number of key topics covered—such as vaccine safety and eligibility—from 40 to more than 200. VIRA has been adopted by seven state health departments and has participated in more than 25,000 conversations. https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2023/johns-hopkins-bloomberg-school-of-public-health-wins-six-anthem-awards

Congratulations to the Winners of the 2nd Annual Anthem Awards!

Since launching The Anthem Awards in the summer of 2021, we've seen that impact has become a dominant force in mainstream culture. Now with nearly 2,000 entries from 43 countries around the world — ranging from local grassroots organizations to large-scale endeavors from global brands — the Anthem community demonstrates a commitment to impact and purpose-driven work that’s here to stay.

"The sheer number, breadth, and overall quality of the entries shared with us in the 2nd Annual Awards is a testament to the strength of our growing movement," says Anthem Awards Managing Director Jessica Lauretti.

The Anthem Awards is honored to recognize Gloria Steinem, the founders of Ben & Jerry’s, Ben Cohen & Jerry Greenfield, Billy Porter, Gabrielle Giffords, Amanda Gorman, Oleksandra Matviichuk on behalf of the Center for Civil Liberties and the People of Ukraine, Quannah Chasinghorse, Abigail E. Disney, and Founder & CEO of Chobani, Hamdi Ulukaya, with Special Achievement Awards.

2nd Annual Anthem Awards Winners include Lil Nas X, Michelle Obama’s When We All Vote, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Planned Parenthood, Sir David Attenborough’s The Green Planet, Sesame Street, Marina Abramovic, The Asian American Foundation, Sephora, Selma Blair, It Gets Better Project, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Ciara, UNHCR, NASA, Rihanna’s The Clara Lionel Foundation and so many more activists and leaders in impact.

See all of the 2nd Annual Anthem Awards Winners at anthemawards.com!

“I think everybody's talking about that [flu] right now with the twindemic and potentially the triple endemic with RSV. Right now, the empirical data, the hospitalizations are tracking pretty well with our most pessimistic scenario, which is basically defined by the fact that there is very little immunity in the population because we haven't been infected in the last couple of years." - Dr. Shaun Truelove, assistant scientist at IVAC

Listen to a recent episode of the Public Health On Call podcast where Dr. Truelove returns to talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about this winter's COVID-19 surge as well as what models can tell us about other respiratory diseases like flu and RSV.

Public Health On Call: 554 - A Bleak Winter? Modeling the Next Six Months of COVID, Flu, and RSV Dr. Shaun Truelove, an infectious disease epidemiologist, returns to the podcast to talk with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the latest models for the COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub. They discuss the possibility of another COVID surge this winter as well as what models can tell us about other respiratory...

In case you missed today's hosted by IPA, you can find the recording online -- hear from Dr. William Moss, IVAC's Executive Director, who presented on “Key Clinical and Epidemiological Aspects of and ”.

Watch here:

“Measles and Rubella: A Timely Update for Pediatricians” Webinar Call for Opening- Dr. Mary Agocs, International Pediatrics Association (IPA) Strategic Advisory Group on ImmunizationsOpening Remarks:- Prof. Enver Hasanoglu...

Opinion: Global immunization efforts need a new BRAVE and BOLD approach If we are to reverse the largest sustained decline in routine immunization in 30 years and deliver on the full promise of vaccines, we need a new approach that centers on the people delivering vaccines and information to communities with least access, argues Anuradha Gupta, Sabin’s president of gl...

💛👏🏽En preparación para el , nuestra investigadora Ruth Jimbo Sotomayor participó en el evento organizado por el International Vaccine Access Center at JHSPH con su ponencia sobre el impacto de las inmunizaciones en la reducción de hospitalizaciones y mortalidad por enfermedades neumocócicas en el 🇪🇨

Facultad de Medicina PUCE

We are going live on Facebook tomorrow! Join our discussion with International Vaccine Access Center at JHSPH at 2pm ET about recent progress with pneumonia and diarrhea, two illnesses that are the largest killers of children under five globally. Get your questions answered, and learn how you can help prevent pneumonia and diarrheal disease in children to save lives. RSVP to the event: https://fb.me/e/1WFMUPfyf

https://www.facebook.com/JohnsHopkinsSPH/posts/pfbid02kaNhCA19uexT8mKtgA1oemwZbpvEzhD1iahPicn972x2HuUhW6QzR95rdgdB2voyl

U.S. COVID hospital admissions decline, patients less severely ill Spike in European cases may portend potential winter surge, Johns Hopkins experts say

Chatbots that seek to connect with young people about vaccine-related messaging should use empathetic and reflective statements with comprehensive responses to questions. Humor and moral appeal in VIRA messages were found to have a negative effect on users’ perceptions of the chatbot. Direct messages and casual, nontechnical language were more likely to appeal to users even with extensive detail provided. Messages also seemed inauthentic when they used messages that implied some sort of sentience in the bot. By using this feedback, VIRA will be able to improve its communication style to reach a wider audience more effectively.

Learn more here:

Chatbot-Delivered COVID-19 Vaccine Communication Message Preferences of Young Adults and Public Health Workers in Urban American Communities: Qualitative Study Background: Automated conversational agents, or chatbots, have a role in reinforcing evidence-based guidance delivered through other media and offer an accessible, individually tailored channel for public engagement. In early-to-mid 2021, young adults and minority populations disproportionately affe...

Over 70% of all children lack any access to rotavirus vaccines and hundred of thousands are hospitalized each year. The Rotavirus Organization of Technical Allies (ROTA) Council is a team of child health experts whose goal is to accelerate the introduction of rotavirus vaccines in low/middle income countries. There are barriers along all the steps of getting the vaccine of children and one of the core goals of the ROTA Council is to establish scientific consensus so that decision-makers are able to make informed decisions through messaging and information that show that the benefits of rotavirus vaccination far outweigh the risks. Bridging this gap between scientific evidence and the utility will hopefully move programs forward and make progress towards the goals of vaccinating children.

ROTA Council: History and Impact on the Fight Against Rotavirus Disease Diarrhea sickens and kills more children than virtually any other illness. The Rotavirus Organization of Technical Allies (ROTA) is an initiative at the Inte...

Higher Vaccination Rates Blunted Delta Variant Surge in some US States

IVAC scientist👨‍🔬, Shaun Truelove recently co-authored a paper, evaluating projections of COVID-19 resurgences📈 amid the Delta🦠 variant. The article found that high vaccination rates were critical in limiting the magnitude of illness and death🩺.
The study that it assessed in the article involves a series of 6-month⏳ projections in Spring 2021 estimating the resurgence of COVID-19 resulting from the Delta variant and accompanying reopening of schools📚 and businesses🏢.

The scenarios revealed that reaching higher vaccine coverage critically reduced📉 the size and duration of the projected resurgence. The study also revealed the staggering finding that “higher vaccination goals at the onset of the surge of the new variant were estimated to avert over 1.5 million cases and 21,000 deaths.” This may also be an underestimation, as the resurgence magnitude was underestimated by the study’s projections.

To learn more, read the article here 👉https://bit.ly/3IrFBio

Projected resurgence of COVID-19 in the United States in July—December 2021 resulting from the increased transmissibility of the Delta variant and faltering vaccination Multi-model ensembling projected that the Delta variant would lead to a substantial COVID-19 resurgence in the US, with higher vaccination uptake being a critical factor for limiting transmission and impact between states.

As vaccines for younger U.S. children roll out, the effects on day care centers may be muted. Federal action to make children older than 6 months eligible for vaccines not only affects parents but also day care centers, which have struggled throughout the pandemic.

In a joint statement with our partners, Every Breath Counts and Save the Children, we urge the Gavi board to remove the economic barrier preventing PCV vaccine introduction in Somalia, Guinea, South Sudan, and Chad. The vaccine’s introduction could prevent more than 92,000 childhood pneumonia deaths in the next decade, and would require only $1 million in co-financing each year.

Currently, across the four countries, pneumonia is causing the more than 40,000 child deaths yearly. Health Ministers in the four African countries have made it clear they want to introduce the PCV but will need external financing support to meet the Gavi co-financing requirement.

Read the joint statement here: https://bit.ly/3zLTbuw

What You Need to Know About the Novavax Protein-Based Vaccine | Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Novavax, a protein-based vaccine, could soon be authorized for emergency use. Here’s what you need to know.

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued Emergency Use Authorization for vaccines for children ages 6 months to 5 years, and CDC's recommendations are expected soon.

Ahead of this news, our faculty explain why it’s important for young kids to be vaccinated ➡️ https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2022/10-reasons-to-vaccinate-your-5-under-child-for-covid-19-as-soon-as-possible

Please join us and for an upcoming discussion with guest expert Dr. Alain Labrique tomorrow, May 6 at 8am ET for "The Digital Opportunity for Pandemic Control: Experiences from COVID-19”

Registration is free: https://jh.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYof-yvqjsiGdTwtUYx1JHDpRLGzp35R5nh

Vaccine Information Resource Assistant (VIRA) supports informed decision-making for young people by providing 24/7 access to reliable information in a format that is engaging, empathic, and accessible. The chatbot is available in both English and Spanish, and also on WhatsApp.

VIRA can help health workers or anyone who seeks help fielding questions from family and friends about the . Check out the chatbot that’s here to help you make an informed decision. https://vaxchat.org.

is a coalition of partners who are working to build and support optimized local programs, guide rapid country adoption of revisions in schedule recommendations, and accelerate HPV vaccine introduction. Their website, www.stophpv.org, offers advocacy and education resources to help explain the burden of HPV and the benefits of vaccinating adolescents against this preventable disease.

HPV protect against more than 70% of -causing infections, which is a huge step towards a “Long Life For All”. Visit the new site 👉 http://StopHPV.org to learn more.

Home - CHIC The Full Picture Cervical cancer is the 4th most common cancer among women. In 2018, an estimated 570,000 women worldwide were diagnosed with cervical cancer and about 311,000 died from cervical cancer. 85% of the burden falling on women from lower-middle income countries. Human papillomavirus is li...

is a leading cause of severe and fatal diarrhea in children. Children under two are most susceptible. Get the facts at https://bit.ly/3xogxW0

2022 focuses on .

The documentary on pneumonia🎥, “Niruta: As Long As She Lives” shows a family's struggle with the emotional and financial consequences of severe and illustrates the incredible importance of vaccinating all, especially .
Watch: https://bit.ly/3ocFZrg

TONIGHT: Join us for a webinar by Indigenous and allied physicians and public health leaders: “Enabling Equitable Access to COVID-19 Vaccines for Indigenous Populations”

Register 👉 https://bit.ly/wiw-indigenous-health

Join us for a webinar featuring immunization scientists and thought leaders to discuss “The Value of Vaccines Across the Life Course: A Showcase of Global Findings.” Save the date📅 : April 28 from 8:00am-9:00am ET.

Register👉https://bit.ly/wiw-lifecourse