Ideas to Action:

Independent research for global prosperity

Tag: Vaccines

 

An Executive Order That Could Save Children Here and Abroad

1/9/13
Charles Kenny

Amanda and I wrote before the New Year about the tragic violence against vaccination workers in Pakistan who were doing vital work in the struggle to completely wipe out polio worldwide. Their deaths were linked to allegations that the CIA had used a vaccine campaign as part of intelligence gathering operations in the country.  I’d like to propose a specific policy action by the US government that might marginally reduce the risk of such attacks –and their knock-on effect in terms of more k

Setback for Malaria Vaccine: Time for an AMC?

11/10/12
Owen Barder

There was bad news in research published yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine about the effectiveness of what had seemed to be the best prospect for a malaria vaccine, known by the unsexy name of 'RTS,S'.

The study of the phase III trials finds that in babies (aged 6-12 weeks) the vaccine only reduces malaria by less than a third. This is disappointing because this is less than half the effectiveness that had been suggested by the phase II clinical trials.

Love Thy Neighbor(s): The Need for Herd Immunity

1/26/12
Denizhan Duran

As we posted recently, India had its first polio-free year, despite significantly lagging behind in other vaccinations. The economic losses of vaccine-preventable diseases (VPD) to developing countries are tremendous: investing in vaccines in low- and middle-income countries would save 6.4 million children until 2020 – an investment valued at $231 billion.

Why Are People Hesitating to Get Vaccinated? Distinguishing Context vs. Individuals

1/26/12
Amanda Glassman

Vaccine uptake in several countries is stagnating or even declining (see here and here for example). What explains this poor uptake and coverage? Public health researchers have recently begun to apply the concept of ‘vaccine hesitancy’ and ‘vaccine refusal’, largely focusing on individual knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP). But in a new blog post Robert Steinglass of JSI has argued that, while communications and advocacy interventions to change individual KAP are important, this person-centric view will fail to consider the context and the role of quality on the supply-side in determining uptake. He writes:

Global Health and the New Bottom Billion – Amanda Glassman

1/23/12
Lawrence MacDonald

Global health funders have historically focused their aid on countries with the lowest per capita incomes, on the assumption that that’s where most of world’s poor people live.  In recent years, however, many large developing countries achieved rapid growth, lifting them into the ranks of the so-called middle-income countries, or MICs, even though they are still home to hundreds of millions of very poor people.  Andy Sumner has called the poor people in the MICs a “new bottom billion,” as distinct from the bottom billion in poor and fragile states that Paul Collier wrote about in his popular 2007 book.

Vaccines: The Gift That Keeps On Giving

12/22/11
Charles Kenny

Here are two pictures to help you get into the holiday spirit.  The World Health Organization has data on global incidence of various diseases that can be prevented by vaccination.  These are numbers aggregated from country reports to the organization, which are subject to considerable error.  The WHO warns that reported disease incidence data usually represent only a fraction of actual cases of the disease.  Nonetheless, the data is useful to monitor trends in prevalence, and a lot of those trend

AMCs: The Journey from Idea to Action

11/11/11
Amanda Glassman

This is a joint post with Kate McQueston

November 12th is fast approaching and with it comes world pneumonia day. Unfortunately, pneumococcal diseases still pose an enormous global threat--remaining the leading cause of death for children worldwide and taking the lives of 1.4 million children under five years annually. What’s more—a staggering 98% of these children live in developing countries.

Promising Malaria Vaccine Is a Rare Bright Spot in Clinical Trials Labyrinth

10/24/11
Amanda Glassman

News this month that an experimental vaccine cuts in half the risk of malaria in children in Africa is a welcome success story 20+ years in the making. It’s also a rare bright spot in the clinical trials labyrinth that stands between promising new medicines, vaccines, and diagnostic techniques and the one billion people in the developing world who suffer from one or more neglected diseases. Ninety other drug and vaccine candidates for neglected diseases are waiting in the pipeline for late stage clinical development. Under current arrangements, they will face lengthy, inefficient reviews in countries where the regulatory capacity ranges from weak to non-existent.

Instead of a Man on the Moon, Why Not a Fully Vaccinated Kid?

8/15/11
Denizhan Duran

While the developed world commits itself to austerity measures and slashes aid budgets across the board, emerging economies are increasingly using foreign aid and direct investment to increase their soft power and global clout. In two articles this week, The Economist reports that India plans to set up its own aid agency. Once the world’s biggest aid recipient, India now plans to give $11.3 billion in the next five to seven years. While most of this sum is expected to be in the form of foreign direct investment, it also covers capacity building and humanitarian assistance for the poorest countries.

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