March 2, 2016 South-East Asia Publication

Pakistan: the final frontier for global polio eradication

With outbreaks in the Middle East and Africa already under control, the world has moved much closer to achieving global polio eradication.1 Among the three endemic countries (Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan), Nigeria has made a significant progress with only six reported cases of polio in 2014, and no new cases reported since July 2014.

March 2, 2016 South-East Asia Publication

Social contacts, vaccination decisions and influenza in Japan

Background Contact patterns and vaccination decisions are fundamental to transmission dynamics of infectious diseases. We report on age-specific contact patterns in Japan and their effect on influenza vaccination behaviour.

Methods Japanese adults (N=3146) were surveyed in Spring 2011 to assess the number of their social contacts within a 24 h period, defined as face-to-face conversations within 2 m, and gain insight into their influenza-related behaviour. We analysed the duration and location of contacts according to age. Additionally, we analysed the probability of vaccination and influenza infection in relation to the number of contacts controlling for individual’s characteristics.

Results The mean and median reported numbers of daily contacts were 15.3 and 12.0, respectively. Schoolaged children and young adults reported the greatest number of daily contacts, and individuals had the most contacts with those in the same age group. The agespecific contact patterns were different between men and ...

Nov. 16, 2019 Europe Event

Global Vaccine Safety Summit

The Global Vaccine Safety Summit is a 2-day event, from 2 to 3 December 2019, organized by the World Health Organization and held at the WHO's headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

In the year that marks the 20^th anniversary of the WHO’s Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (GACVS), the Global Vaccine Safety Summit will be an opportunity to take stock of GACVS accomplishments and look towards priorities for the next decade.

At the Summit, WHO will present the Global Vaccine Safety Blueprint 2.0 strategy 2021-2030 to key stakeholders and collect their input for the final version, due for publication in the new year