Health – VoICE

A Warming World Means Vaccination is More Important Than Ever

“The climate crisis threatens to undo the last fifty years of progress in development, global health, and poverty reduction, and to further widen existing health inequalities between and within populations.”1 With July 2023 confirmed as the hottest month on record2, the impacts of climate change are becoming impossible to ignore. In addition to rising temperatures, … Continued

Why Rotavirus Vaccine Introduction in Nigeria is a Milestone for Child Health

In August 2022, Nigeria became the most recent country to introduce the rotavirus vaccine into its national immunization program. The integration of the rotavirus vaccine into Nigeria’s routine immunization schedule is expected to help reduce at least 40% of morbidity and mortality associated with rotavirus infections amongst children. Key Points Diarrheal diseases are one of … Continued

Vaccination: Helping children think, learn and thrive

A healthy child is more likely to attend school, performs better in school and attends school for longer than a child who is often ill or has suffered permanent disabilities as a result of illness. In this Feature, VoICE explores how vaccine-preventable infections affect cognitive development and schooling, and highlights evidence of the effect vaccination can have in protecting a child’s neurologic development, educational prospects and ultimately, future productivity.

The Unyielding Impact of Childhood Diarrhea

Despite tremendous global progress, diarrhea remains the second leading infectious cause of under-5 deaths, taking a child’s life almost every minute. Although diarrhea can seem like a common, simple childhood ailment in many places, a single episode of diarrhea can be serious, even deadly, and have severe economic implications for families and communities. Advocates play a critical role in ensuring evidence-based diarrhea prevention and control programs and policies are a top priority globally and in the countries where this disease is most prolific.

Cancer and Immunization: More than meets the eye

Evidence from several disciplines indicates that immunization has a broader role to play in lessening the impact of cancer than one might expect. While it may be obvious that the widespread and growing use of vaccines against Hepatitis B and human papilloma virus (HPV) is directly responsible for preventing a significant number of related cancers, immunization against a host of other diseases may indirectly help to prevent additional cancers while helping to protect the health of immune-compromised cancer patients considerably. Read on for a brief explanation of how vaccines can prevent cancer, protect cancer patients and more.