Combatting Measles Outbreaks in Brazil During COVID-19 Pandemic
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, parents like Edicarlos were understandably afraid to leave home to bring their children for routine immunizations. “We didn’t come to vaccinate because we were social distancing.” The problem is that, wherever there are unvaccinated pockets of children, measles outbreaks emerge — and they did in Brazil — as the disease is far more contagious than COVID-19.
To protect Edicarlos’s daughter, Maria, and other children in the country, the Pan American Health Organization (the regional office for the Americas of the World Health Organization), quickly but carefully orchestrated an emergency, mass vaccination campaign against measles in 2020, adhering to all pandemic safety protocols. This was no easy task, but parents like Edicarlos can now rest easy knowing his daughter is protected from measles.
Photo courtesy of PAHO/Karina Zambra
Investments in Polio Vaccine Delivery Systems Pay (Many) Dividends
Since 1988, in an effort to eradicate polio and ensure no child ever again suffers from this debilitating disease, Global Polio Eradication Initiative partners, including Shot@Life, have made investments to put in place the health infrastructure necessary to track the spread of the disease and deliver polio vaccines in countries around the world. These investments have paid many dividends. Not only has the global incidence of polio decreased by 99.9%, the disease surveillance systems, cold chain logistics, and health workers trained and put in place to eradicate polio have since been used to track many other deadly, infectious diseases and vaccinate children against them. Even now in 2021, polio eradication program infrastructure is being repurposed to assist with COVID-19 pandemic response.
Global polio eradication has been an incredibly wise investment for many reasons, but let’s stay focused on ending the fight against polio once and for all. We all know, now more than ever, that even one case of an infectious disease anywhere on this earth can spread and again put us all at risk. Let’s finally and fully eradicate polio!
Photo courtesy of PAHO/Karina Zambra
Joy in Uganda as the Rotavirus Vaccine Arrives
The rotavirus vaccine has protected children in the U.S. from severe diarrheal disease since 2006 and, until 2018, Ugandan parents could only hope for the same for their children. Shot@Life’s UN partners — World Health Organization, UNICEF, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance – worked alongside the Ugandan government to make that dream a reality with the national introduction and rollout of the rotavirus vaccine in 2018. Health clinics filled to the brim with happy mothers and their children throughout the summer.
Severe diarrheal disease had taken the lives of numerous children in Lumuli village over the years. Knowing her six-month old daughter, Annette, would now be protected from the disease was a great source of joy and relief to mother, Esther. “I am at peace knowing now that my baby is safe,” said Esther. “My dream is that Annette will become a nurse.”
Photo courtesy of Shot@Life/Allison Shelley
