Nigeria on the brink of becoming polio-free
On August 21 this year, Nigeria crossed an important milestone in the eradication of polio when it successfully completed three successive years without a single case of wild poliovirus. The…
Category: vaccine
Vaccine hesitancy and the deadly spread of measles
With 3,65,000 cases of measles reported globally in the first six months of this year, vaccine hesitancy appears to have grown more dangerous to public health. In 121 Indian districts…
Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal perform better than India in controlling hepatitis B
India introduced hepatitis B vaccine in the Universal Immunisation Programme in 2002 and scaled-up nationwide in 2011. But even eight years later, the prevalence among children less than five years…
Deadly Ebola virus on the brink of being tamed
Preliminary analysis of 499 Ebola infected participants has sprung a surprise — the chances of survival may be as high as 90% if patients are treated with one of the…
Sri Lanka: Island of hope in the midst of global measles resurgence
Even as Europe is seeing a resurgence of measles with 1,60,000 cases and more than 100 deaths between January 2018 and May 2019, on July 9, Sri Lanka became the fourth country…
Merck’s unlicensed Ebola vaccine shows 97.5% efficacy in Congo
Merck’s Ebola vaccine, which underwent phase-3 trial during the 2014-2015 Ebola epidemic in west Africa, has shown 97.5% efficacy in preventing Ebola disease when used during the current epidemic in…
WHO declares Ebola in Congo as public health emergency
On July 17, the WHO finally declared Ebola virus disease outbreak in Congo a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Since the beginning of the outbreak in August 2018, Ebola…
Nearly 6,200 H1N1 cases reported in India in three weeks
In three weeks (February 24 to March 17) this year, the number of H1N1 cases reported from across India has increased by nearly 6,200. At 20,977, the number of cases…
