As more vaccines have been developed, the challenge of delivering them with minimal pain and number of visits to the doctor has increased. Needle-free vaccinations might help.
A child receives vitamins during a vaccination campaign against polio.
Reuters/Thierry Gouegnon
The immune system does such a good job most of the time that we only really think about it when things go wrong. But to provide such excellent protection, it must constantly learn.
The oral vaccine is the most common polio vaccine used in the world.
S. Sabawoon/EPA/AAP
Recent polio outbreaks in Ukraine and Mali, caused by a vaccine-derived form of poliovirus, don’t mean the vaccine isn’t working. On the contrary, they are a reminder to keep up vaccination rates.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are the only two countries that still have endemic levels of polio.
Parwiz/Reuters
Nigeria’s strategy to eliminate polio was so effective that it was duplicated to deal with ebola. So why did the country take so long to get off the list of polio-endemic countries?
Senegalese Mamou Tiang, who suffers from polio, begs for money outside a bank on a sidewalk in the capital Dakar.
Nic Bothma/EPA
When the measles vaccine was introduced, it was associated with reductions in more childhood disease deaths than were actually caused by the measles. How does that work?
Given the increasing number of vaccines recommended for adolescents and adults in Australia, the newly announced initiatives are a very good idea.
Wellcome Images/Flickr
Tucked away in the budget papers is an intitiative worthy of applause – the establishment of an adult immunisation register and the expansion of the childhood register to include adolescents.
From January, conscientious objectors to vaccine will lose up to $15,000 of childcare and family tax rebates.
Daria Filimonova/Shutterstock
The plan to withhold payments of child-care and family tax benefits for unvaccinated children could cost non-compliant parents up to A$15,000 a year. But is it ethical to punish parents?
Immunisation like this in East Africa have stalled in Ebola-hit countries in West Africa.
DfID
Immunisation programmes have taken a back seat because of Ebola and it leaves countries vulnerable to other outbreaks.
Removing the childcare rebate for parents who do not fully immunise their children is unnecessarily punitive and could have repercussions.
Oksana Shufrych/Shutterstock
Immunisation in Australia isn’t compulsory – and doesn’t need to be controversial. Most Australians recognise the incredible benefits that vaccination provides to prevent serious disease.
A child is vaccinated against polio during a three-day nationwide campaign to eradicate polio, in Karachi, Pakistan, May 2014.
EPA/SHAHZAIB AKBER
The US government has told a group of local health educators that it will no longer use immunisation programs as a cover for espionage. But the damage from previous such programs is difficult to undo…
Most of us will receive the majority of our vaccinations in childhood. But Australian adults still die and become disabled from vaccine-preventable diseases. Immunisations are therefore an important preventive…
A little bit of pain is a worthwhile price for child health and community well-being.
Sarah Gilbert
Often cited as one of the most important medical breakthroughs in human history, immunisation has been a hallmark of public health interventions for more than 200 years. Globally, an estimated 2.5 million…
Malaria prevention is going beyond the mosquito net.
Gates Foundation
The announcement that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) aims to register a malaria vaccine came on the same day Peter Higgs and Francois Englert were awarded the Nobel prize in physics for predicting the existence…
Paediatrician at the Royal Childrens Hospital and Associate Professor and Clinician Scientist, University of Melbourne and MCRI, Murdoch Children's Research Institute
Paediatrician, National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance; Clinical Lecturer, Children's Hospital Westmead Clinical School, University of Sydney