Announcements

Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group    [to 16 Mar 2019]
https://www.alleninstitute.org/news-press/
No new digest content identified.

BMGF – Gates Foundation  [to 16 Mar 2019]
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Media-Center/Press-Releases
No new digest content identified.
 
 
Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute    [to 16 Mar 2019]
https://www.gatesmri.org/
The Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute is a non-profit biotech organization. Our mission is to develop products to fight malaria, tuberculosis, and diarrheal diseases—three major causes of mortality, poverty, and inequality in developing countries. The world has unprecedented scientific tools at its disposal; now is the time to use them to save the lives of the world’s poorest people
No new digest content identified.
 
 
CARB-X   [to 16 Mar 2019]
https://carb-x.org/
CARB-X is a non-profit public-private partnership dedicated to accelerating antibacterial research to tackle the global rising threat of drug-resistant bacteria.
03.14.2019
Germany joins CARB-X partnership in the fight against deadly drug-resistant superbugs
CARB-X announced today it has signed a partnership agreement with Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) to invest €39 million over four years in the early development of antibiotics, vaccines, and diagnostics to combat drug-resistant bacteria. Under the agreement, BMBF will also provide an additional €1 million in direct support to a consortium of the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), the Federal Institute for Vaccines and Biomedicines (PEI) and the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM), which is joining the CARB-X Global Accelerator Network, a network of 10 accelerators around the world to support CARB-X funded projects. CARB-X is a global non-profit partnership housed at Boston University.
 
 
CEPI – Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations  [to 16 Mar 2019]
http://cepi.net/
13 Mar 2019  Blog
The global economy is woefully unprepared for biological threats. This is what we need to do
 
 
EDCTP    [to 16 Mar 2019]
http://www.edctp.org/
The European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) aims to accelerate the development of new or improved drugs, vaccines, microbicides and diagnostics against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as well as other poverty-related and neglected infectious diseases in sub-Saharan Africa, with a focus on phase II and III clinical trials
Latest news

13 March 2019
ASAAP clinical study of malaria treatment for children has started
A large clinical study evaluating a triple plus combination of antimalarials for children has started in Ghana. The study is coordinated by Dr. Oumou Maiga-Ascofare of the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and…

 
 
Emory Vaccine Center    [to 16 Mar 2019]
http://www.vaccines.emory.edu/
No new digest content identified.
 
 
European Medicines Agency  [to 16 Mar 2019]
http://www.ema.europa.eu/ema/
News and press releases
No new digest content identified.
 
 
European Vaccine Initiative  [to 16 Mar 2019]
http://www.euvaccine.eu/news-events
Latest news
No new digest content identified.
 
 
FDA [to 16 Mar 2019]
https://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/default.htm
March 14, 2019
Statement by FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D., on new strategies to modernize clinical trials to advance precision medicine, patient protections and more efficient product development

Modernizing clinical trials is an agency wide priority. As more diseases are being redefined based on genomic subtype, researchers have more novel targets and more opportunities to precisely modulate or even repair the basic biological drivers of illness. Precision guided medicines can demonstrate strong efficacy signals in early clinical trials, including in trials where small groups of patients are selected based on biomarkers or other criteria suggesting they’re likely to benefit. These trials can potentially allow earlier regulatory assessment of benefit and risk. When the agency can make a positive approval decision, patients can gain earlier access to important new therapeutic options. To take advantage of these innovations, the agency is also seeking new ways to modernize its approaches to accommodate these novel opportunities.

The FDA isn’t alone. The advent of precision medicine is challenging the entire medical research ecosystem to develop more efficient approaches to testing and developing diagnostics and therapeutics, to harness the full potential of science to reduce the suffering, death, and disability caused by complex human illnesses. The agency is committed to developing a regulatory framework for precision medicine that generates robust evidence of product safety and efficacy as efficiently as possible, including frameworks that are more carefully suited to the kinds of precision technologies that underpin new treatments.

But these opportunities can be delayed or stymied by a clinical research enterprise that is often extraordinarily complex and expensive. Efforts to streamline medical product development based on advancing science can be frustrated by legacy business models that discourage collaboration and data sharing, and the adoption of disruptive technologies that make clinical research more effective. Without a more agile clinical research enterprise capable of testing more therapies or combinations of therapies against an expanding array of targets more efficiently and at lower total cost, important therapeutic opportunities may be delayed or discarded because we can’t afford to run trials needed to validate them…

 
 
Fondation Merieux  [to 16 Mar 2019]
http://www.fondation-merieux.org/
No new digest content identified.
 
 
Gavi [to 16 Mar 2019]
https://www.gavi.org/
Latest News
Pneumoccocal vaccine price drops for third year running
In agreement with Gavi, Pfizer reduces price of pneumococcal vaccine to US$ 2.90 per dose for Gavi-eligible countries.
Geneva, 14 March 2019 – Pfizer has reduced the price of its pneumococcal vaccine (PCV) for 73 developing countries by five cents to US$ 2.90 per dose.

The price drop, a result of negotiations between Pfizer and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, is Pfizer’s third for its PCV vaccine since January 2017 and is expected to lead to savings to Gavi and developing country governments of US$ 4.1 million this year alone.

The reduction is the result of strong ongoing implementation of pneumococcal vaccine national programs and builds on efficiencies achieved through the introduction of the PCV four-dose vial (4-D MDV) as well as stable country volumes over the past three years. In 2017 the price of Pfizer’s PCV single dose vial (SDV) was US$ 3.30 per dose.

“Pneumonia remains the single largest cause of death for children worldwide and pneumococcal vaccine is one of our best weapons against it,” said Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi. “We have worked hard to boost access to this lifesaver in the world’s poorest countries – coverage rates in lower income, Gavi-eligible countries are now approaching the global average.  Lower prices, a result of our important partnership with Pfizer, have played a critical role in this effort…

Gavi and Zenysis Technologies to bring data and artificial intelligence to immunisation programmes

Geneva, 12 March 2019 – Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and Zenysis Technologies, a Silicon Valley startup, have established a new strategic partnership that will help low-income countries harness the power of big data and artificial intelligence to improve childhood vaccination programs around the world.

Zenysis Technologies was identified by Gavi, through the INFUSE (Innovation for Uptake, Scale and Equity in Immunisation) yearly call for innovation. INFUSE aims to identify proven solutions which, when brought to scale, have the greatest potential to modernise global health and immunisation delivery.

A two-year partnership will provide countries with the Zenysis’ software platform, analytical training and IT skills development. Countries will use the platform’s capabilities to integrate data from their fragmented information systems and help decision-makers see where children are not receiving vaccines. Advanced analytics will then help countries decide how to target their limited resources for maximum impact.

“Weak immunisation data leads to poor planning, often meaning that children, whether they live in urban slums or remote rural outposts, miss out on lifesaving vaccines. Digital transformation of immunisation data and analytics is key to making sure that all children are protected from vaccine-preventable diseases,” said Gavi CEO Dr Seth Berkley. “Our partnership with Zenysis has the potential to increase efficiency and reduce costs for developing countries but, most importantly, it could save lives.”…
 
 
GHIT Fund   [to 16 Mar 2019]
https://www.ghitfund.org/newsroom/press
GHIT was set up in 2012 with the aim of developing new tools to tackle infectious diseases that devastate the world’s poorest people. Other funders include six Japanese pharmaceutical
No new digest content identified.
 
 
Global Fund  [to 16 Mar 2019]
https://www.theglobalfund.org/en/news/
News
No new digest content identified.
 
 
Hilleman Laboratories   [to 16 Mar 2019]
http://www.hillemanlabs.org/
No new digest content identified.
 
 
Human Vaccines Project   [to 16 Mar 2019]
http://www.humanvaccinesproject.org/media/press-releases/
No new digest content identified.
 
 
IAVI  [to 16 Mar 2019]
https://www.iavi.org/newsroom
Iavi and partner scientific publications
March 12, 2019
Simulated vaccine efficacy trials to estimate HIV incidence for actual vaccine clinical trials in key populations in Uganda
PMID: 30857933
Abstract: Fisherfolks (FF) and female sex workers (FSW) in Uganda could be suitable key populations for HIV vaccine efficacy trials because of the high HIV incidence and good retention in observational cohorts. However, the observed HIV incidence may differ in participants who enroll into a trial. We used simulated vaccine efficacy trials (SiVET) nested within observational cohorts in these populations to evaluate this difference.
PMID Author: Abaasa A, Nash S, Mayanja Y, Price M, Fast PE, Kamali A, Kaleebu P, Todd J
 
 
IFFIm
http://www.iffim.org/library/news/press-releases/
No new digest content identified.
 
 
IFRC   [to 16 Mar 2019]
http://media.ifrc.org/ifrc/news/press-releases/
Press Releases 
Asia Pacific, Philippines
Millions of children at risk as death toll rises in Philippines measles outbreak
An estimated 3.7 million children under five in the Philippines are at risk during a measles outbreak that has already claimed 286 lives, most of them children or babies, the Red Cross is warning.
14 March 2019

Europe
Ukraine: Red Cross deployed to help contain largest measles outbreak in Europe in four years
Budapest/Geneva, 5 March 2019 – Ukrainian Red Cross Society volunteers are being deployed to help contain a measles outbreak that has affected more than 75,000 people, making it the largest outbreak in Europe since 2015.  This includes 54,000 measles c …
5 March 2019

 
 
IVAC  [to 16 Mar 2019]
https://www.jhsph.edu/research/centers-and-institutes/ivac/index.html
No new digest content identified.

 
 
IVI   [to 16 Mar 2019]
http://www.ivi.int/
IVI News & Announcements
No new digest content identified.
 
 
JEE Alliance  [to 16 Mar 2019]
https://www.jeealliance.org/
Selected News and Events
Strategic Partnership for International Health Regulations (2005) and Health Security
12.3.2019   Article
The implementation of the International Health Regulations (2005) Monitoring and Evaluation Framework will draw on WHO’s convening role to facilitate strategic cooperation and generate collaborative…
 
 
MSF/Médecins Sans Frontières  [to 16 Mar 2019]
http://www.msf.org/
Selected News; Project Updates, Reports [as presented on website]
Mali
Conflict, curfew and floods put healthcare out of reach in Mopti
Project Update 12 Mar 2019
 
 
NIH  [to 16 Mar 2019]
http://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases
No new digest content identified.
 
 
PATH  [to 16 Mar 2019]
https://www.path.org/media-center/
March 11, 2019
Leading humanitarian, development, and global health organizations urge Congress to reject cuts to foreign assistance

Washington, D.C., March 11, 2019 — Leading humanitarian, development, and global health organizations Bread for the World, CARE, Catholic Relief Services, Interaction, International Rescue Committee, Mercy Corps, ONE, Oxfam, PATH, Save the Children, and World Vision, are calling on Members of Congress to protect the International Affairs budget in Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20) despite the Administration’s proposed 24 percent cuts. American leadership is critical in the face of daunting global challenges, from conflict to mass displacement, from food insecurity to global health crises.

More than 132 million people are projected to need humanitarian assistance in 2019 given an unprecedented number of humanitarian crises. Natural disasters, atrocities, gender-based violence, and protracted armed conflict have resulted in more than 68 million displaced persons, including more than 25 million refugees. Now is not the time to slash effective, life-saving programs that help create a safer and more secure world.

In addition, the Administration’s proposal to significantly modify and repeal the refugee mandate and resources of the Department of State’s humanitarian bureau, coupled with a 34 percent cut to humanitarian assistance, is unwise, especially given historic levels of displacement…
 
 

Sabin Vaccine Institute  [to 16 Mar 2019]
http://www.sabin.org/updates/pressreleases
No new digest content identified.
 
 
UNAIDS [to 16 Mar 2019]
http://www.unaids.org/en
Selected Press Releases/Reports/Statements
11 March 2019
HIV prevention: not hitting the mark

The number of new HIV infections globally continues to fall. Modelled estimates show that new infections (all ages) declined from a peak of 3.4 million [2.6 million–4.4 million] in 1996 to 1.8 million [1.4 million–2.4 million] in 2017—the year for which the most recent data are available. However, progress is far slower than that required to reach the 2020 target of fewer than 500 000 new HIV infections
 
 
UNICEF  [to 16 Mar 2019]
https://www.unicef.org/media/press-releases
Selected Press Releases/Reports/Statements
Statement
Intensification of fighting impeding humanitarian access and displacing thousands in Hajjah, Yemen
Statement by UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore
13/03/2019

Press release
260,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition in the Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo – UNICEF
Humanitarian situation in Kasai remains precarious following recent influx of Congolese families returning from Angola
12/03/2019

Statement
2018 deadliest year yet for children in Syria as war enters 9th year
Statement by UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore
10/03/2019

 
 
Vaccine Confidence Project [to 16 Mar 2019]
http://www.vaccineconfidence.org/
No new digest content identified.
 
 
Vaccine Education Center – Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia [to 16 Mar 2019]
http://www.chop.edu/centers-programs/vaccine-education-center
No new digest content identified.
 
 
Wellcome Trust [to 16 Mar 2019]
https://wellcome.ac.uk/news
No new digest content identified.

The Wistar Institute [to 16 Mar 2019]
https://www.wistar.org/news/press-releases
No new digest content identified.

World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE)   [to 16 Mar 2019]
http://www.oie.int/en/for-the-media/press-releases/2019/
07/03/19
FAO, OIE, and WHO launch a guide for countries on taking a One Health approach to addressing zoonotic diseases
Zoonotic diseases continue to be a threat to global health, causing millions of deaths and economic losses every year. To support countries to control these diseases, the Tripartite organisations (FAO, OIE and WHO) today launched a guide entitled ‘Taking a Multisectoral, One Health Approach: A Tripartite Guide to Addressing Zoonotic Diseases in Countries’.

::::::

BIO [to 16 Mar 2019]
https://www.bio.org/insights/press-release
No new digest content identified.

DCVMN – Developing Country Vaccine Manufacturers Network [to 16 Mar 2019]
http://www.dcvmn.org/
No new digest content identified.

IFPMA [to 16 Mar 2019]
http://www.ifpma.org/resources/news-releases/
No new digest content identified.

PhRMA [to 16 Mar 2019]
http://www.phrma.org/press-room
No new digest content identified.

Journal Watch

   Vaccines and Global Health: The Week in Review continues its weekly scanning of key peer-reviewed journals to identify and cite articles, commentary and editorials, books reviews and other content supporting our focus on vaccine ethics and policy. Journal Watch is not intended to be exhaustive, but indicative of themes and issues the Center is actively tracking. We selectively provide full text of some editorial and comment articles that are specifically relevant to our work. Successful access to some of the links provided may require subscription or other access arrangement unique to the publisher.

If you would like to suggest other journal titles to include in this service, please contact David Curry at: david.r.curry@centerforvaccineethicsandpolicy.org

BMJ Global Health
March 2019 – Volume 4 – 2
https://gh.bmj.com/content/4/2

Editorial
Public health in Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (9 March, 2019)
Douglas James Noble

BMJ Global Health
March 2019 – Volume 4 – 2
https://gh.bmj.com/content/4/2

Research
Systematic review of evidence on public health in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (9 March, 2019)
John J Park, Ah-Young Lim, Hyung-Soon Ahn, Andrew I Kim, Soyoung Choi, David HW Oh, Owen Lee-Park, Sharon Y Kim, Sun Jae Jung, Jesse B Bump, Rifat Atun, Hee Young Shin, Kee B Park

BMJ Global Health
March 2019 – Volume 4 – 2
https://gh.bmj.com/content/4/2

Analysis
Investing in health R&D: where we are, what limits us, and how to make progress in Africa (4 March, 2019)
Victoria Simpkin, Evelyn Namubiru-Mwaura, Lorcan Clarke, Elias Mossialos

BMJ Global Health
March 2019 – Volume 4 – 2
https://gh.bmj.com/content/4/2

Practice
How is implementation research applied to advance health in low-income and middle-income countries? (7 March, 2019)
Olakunle Alonge, Daniela Cristina Rodriguez, Neal Brandes, Elvin Geng, Ludovic Reveiz, David H Peters

BMC Health Services Research
http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmchealthservres/content
(Accessed 16 Mar 2019)

Research article
Consideration of sex and gender in Cochrane reviews of interventions for preventing healthcare-associated infections: a methodology study
Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are common and increase morbidity, mortality, and healthcare costs. Their control continues to be an unresolved issue worldwide. HAIs epidemiology shows sex/gender diffe…
Authors: Jesús López-Alcalde, Elena Stallings, Sheila Cabir Nunes, Abelardo Fernández Chávez, Mathilde Daheron, Xavier Bonfill Cosp and Javier Zamora
Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2019 19:169
Published on: 15 March 2019

BMC Medicine
http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcmed/content
(Accessed 16 Mar 2019)

Research article
Repeated clinical malaria episodes are associated with modification of the immune system in children
There are over 200 million reported cases of malaria each year, and most children living in endemic areas will experience multiple episodes of clinical disease before puberty. We set out to understand how freq…
Authors: Yaw Bediako, Rhys Adams, Adam J. Reid, John Joseph Valletta, Francis M. Ndungu, Jan Sodenkamp, Jedidah Mwacharo, Joyce Mwongeli Ngoi, Domtila Kimani, Oscar Kai, Juliana Wambua, George Nyangweso, Etienne P. de Villiers, Mandy Sanders, Magda Ewa Lotkowska, Jing-Wen Lin…
Citation: BMC Medicine 2019 17:60
Published on: 13 March 2019

BMC Public Health
http://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles
(Accessed 16 Mar 2019)

Research article
Social inequities in vaccination coverage among infants and pre-school children in Europe and Australia – a systematic review
Herd immunity levels of vaccine uptake are still not reached in some high-income countries, usually in countries with persisting social inequities in uptake. Previous studies have focused on factors within one health care system. This study takes a broader health care systems approach by reviewing the socioeconomic distribution of vaccination coverage on the national level in light of structural and organizational differences of primary care for children.
Authors: Arzu Arat, Bo Burström, Viveca Östberg and Anders Hjern
Citation: BMC Public Health 2019 19:290
Published on: 12 March 2019

Ethics & Human Research
Volume 41, Issue 1 January-February 2019
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/25782363
New Challenges and Unresolved Issues
The inaugural issue of Ethics & Human Research (E&HR) marks an exciting milestone in The Hastings Centers’ 40‐year history of publishing a journal that focuses on the ethical, regulatory, and policy issues related to research with humans. Like its predecessor, IRB: Ethics & Human Research, E&HR will publish conceptual and empirical analyses on a wide range of topics related to the human research enterprise.
The journal’s name change conveys to the global community of authors and readers that E&HR is not solely about issues related to institutional review boards (IRBs) in the United States. The title shift provides an opportunity to identify new ethical, policy, and regulatory challenges that rapid developments in science, medicine, and regulatory frameworks bring to the conduct and oversight of human subjects research in the United States and elsewhere. Along with publishing work that investigates new challenges, E&HR aims not only to draw attention to unresolved issues but also to broaden the scope of issues for investigation and analysis in the field of human research ethics. The pieces in this inaugural issue identify several new challenges and hint at some of the unresolved issues and broader topics that merit further attention.

Global Public Health
Volume 14, 2019   Issue 5
http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rgph20/current

Article
Surveillance in the field: Over-identification of Ebola suspect cases and its contributing factors in West African at-risk contexts

1. Desclaux, M. S. Malan, M. Egrot, K. Sow for EBSEN Study Group & F. Akindès for EBO-CI Study Group

Pages: 709-721
Published online: 13 Oct 2018

Health Affairs
Vol. 38 , No. 3 March 2019
https://www.healthaffairs.org/toc/hlthaff/current
Patients As Consumers

Overview  Patients & Consumers

Patient Engagement In Research: Early Findings From The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute
Laura P. Forsythe, Kristin L. Carman, Victoria Szydlowski, Lauren Fayish, …
Abstract
Charged with ensuring that research produces useful evidence to inform health decisions, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) requires investigators to engage patients and other health care stakeholders, such as clinicians and payers, in the research process. Many PCORI studies result in articles published in peer-reviewed journals that detail research findings and engagement’s role in research. To inform practices for engaging patients and others as research partners, we analyzed 126 articles that described engagement approaches and contributions to research. PCORI projects engaged patients and others as consultants and collaborators in determining the study design, selecting study outcomes, tailoring interventions to meet patients’ needs and preferences, and enrolling participants. Many articles reported that engagement provided valuable contributions to research feasibility, acceptability, rigor, and relevance, while a few noted trade-offs of engagement. The findings suggest that engagement can support more relevant research through better alignment with patients’ and clinicians’ real-world needs and concerns.

Health Affairs
Vol. 38 , No. 3 March 2019
https://www.healthaffairs.org/toc/hlthaff/current
Patients As Consumers

Research Article   Patients & Consumers
Understanding What Information Is Valued By Research Participants, And Why
Consuelo H. Wilkins, Brandy M. Mapes, Rebecca N. Jerome, Victoria Villalta-Gil, …
Abstract
There is growing public demand that research participants receive all of their results, regardless of whether clinical action is indicated. Instead of the standard practice of returning only actionable results, we propose a reconceptualization called “return of value” to encompass the varied ways in which research participants value specific results and more general information they receive beyond actionable results. Our proposal is supported by a national survey of a diverse sample, which found that receiving research results would be valuable to most (78.5 percent) and would make them more likely to trust researchers (70.3 percent). Respondents highly valued results revealing genetic effects on medication response and predicting disease risk, as well as information about nearby clinical trials and updates on how their data were used. The information most valued varied by education, race/ethnicity, and age. Policies are needed to enable return of information in ways that recognize participants’ differing informational needs and values.

Health Economics, Policy and Law
Volume 14 – Special Issue 2 – April 2019
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/health-economics-policy-and-law/latest-issue
SPECIAL ISSUE: Frontiers of Health Policy Research
If the enhancement of human freedom is both the main object and the primary means to development (Sen, 1999), then good individual and population health are both ends and means to development and freedom in all countries, regardless of their current ranking on the Human Development Index or other indexes on wealth, prosperity and well-being…
This special issue on the ‘frontiers in health policy research’ focuses attention on three distinct areas of inquiry. One set of papers analyses efforts to improve the quality of care and increase the value of care that health systems purchase. A second set of articles focuses on issues of health behaviour and social determinants of health. Finally, the third set of articles presents differing views on how to predict the adequacy of supply of medical professionals. The range of these articles illustrates, not only the exciting breadth of health policy research, but the degree to which scholars within this field are addressing issues of high importance to policy makers around the world. We think it is fair to claim that all of the articles address issues that are on the ‘frontier’ of health policy in the sense that they attempt to provide answers to questions that policy makers around the world are currently grappling with…

Health Policy and Planning
Volume 33, Issue 10, 1 December 2018
https://academic.oup.com/heapol/issue/33/10

Original Articles
Realizing their potential to become learning organizations to foster health system resilience: opportunities and challenges for health ministries in low- and middle-income countries
Joseph F Naimoli; Sweta Saxena
Health Policy and Planning, Volume 33, Issue 10, 1 December 2018, Pages 1083–1095, https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czy100

Humanitarian Exchange Magazine
Number 74, February 2019
https://odihpn.org/magazine/communication-community-engagement-humanitarian-response/
Communication and community engagement in humanitarian response
This edition of Humanitarian Exchange, co-edited with Charles-Antoine Hofmann from the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), focuses on communication and community engagement. Despite promising progress, coherent and coordinated information is still not provided systematically to affected communities, and humanitarian responses take insufficient account of the views and feedback of affected people. In 2017, UNICEF, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and other partners came together under the auspices of the Communicating with Disaster Affected Communities (CDAC) Network to establish the Communication and Community Engagement (CCE) initiative, which aims to organise a collective service for communications and community engagement. The articles in this edition take stock of efforts to implement this initiative.

Drawing on lessons from 23 Peer 2 Peer Support missions, Alice Chatelet and Meg Sattler look at what’s needed to integrate CCE into the humanitarian architecture. Viviane Lucia Fluck and Dustin Barter discuss the institutional and practical barriers to implementing community feedback mechanisms. Bronwyn Russel analyses the performance of the Nepal inter-agency common feedback project; Justus Olielo and Charles-Antoine Hofmann outline the challenges of establishing common services in Yemen; and Gil Francis Arevalo reports on community engagement in preparedness and response in the Philippines. Ian McClelland and Frances Hill discuss emerging findings from a strategic partnership in the Philippines between the Humanitarian Innovation Fund and the Asian Disaster Reduction and Response Network.

Charlotte Lancaster describes how call centres in Afghanistan and Iraq are enhancing two-way communication with crisis-affected people. Mia Marzotto from Translators without Borders reflects on the importance of language and translation in communication and community engagement, and Ombretta Baggio and colleagues report on efforts to bring community perspectives into decision-making during an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ayo Degett highlights emerging findings from a Danish Refugee Council project on participation in humanitarian settings, and Jeff Carmel and Nick van Praag report on the Listen Learn Act (LLA) project. Geneviève Cyvoct and Alexandra T. Warner write on an innovative common platform to track the views of affected people in Chad. The edition ends with an article by Stewart Davies on collective accountability in the response to the Central Sulawesi earthquake.

Infectious Diseases of Poverty
http://www.idpjournal.com/content
[Accessed 16 Mar 2019]

Scoping Review
|   15 March 2019
Epidemiology and management of hepatitis C virus infections in immigrant populations
At present, there is a continuous flow of immigrants from the south of the world to north-western countries. Often immigrants originate from areas of high-prevalence of viral hepatitis and pose a challenge to the healthcare systems of the host nations. Aims of this study is to evaluate the prevalence and virological and clinical characteristics of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in immigrants and the strategies to identify and take care of the immigrants infected with HCV.
Authors: Nicola Coppola, Loredana Alessio, Lorenzo Onorato, Caterina Sagnelli, Margherita Macera, Evangelista Sagnelli and Mariantonietta Pisaturo

International Journal of Infectious Diseases
March 2019 Volume 80, p1-152
https://www.ijidonline.com/issue/S1201-9712(19)X0002-8

Original Reports
Effectiveness of 10-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine against vaccine-type invasive pneumococcal disease in Pakistan
Atif Riaz, Syed Mohiuddin, Sara Husain, Mohammad Tahir Yousafzai, Muhammad Sajid, Furqan Kabir, Najeeb ur Rehman, Waseem Mirza, Basit Salam, Naila Nadeem, Khatidja Pardhan, Khalid Mehmood A. Khan, Syed Jamal Raza, Fehmina Arif, Khalid Iqbal, Hassan Khalid Zuberi, Cynthia G. Whitney, Saad B. Omer, Anita K.M. Zaidi, Asad Ali, Pakistan Pneumococcal Vaccine Study Group
p28–33
Published online: December 18, 2018

Journal of Adolescent Health
March 2019 Volume 64, Issue 3, p283-418
https://www.jahonline.org/issue/S1054-139X(18)X0005-6

Editorials
Supporting Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights Through Innovative Research Approaches
Devon J. Hensel
p288–289
Published in issue: March 2019
International health care governing bodies define the ability to achieve and maintain sexual and reproductive health (SRH) as a fundamental human right [1, 2, 3]. This rights-based paradigm places at its core—for individuals of all ages but especially for adolescents and young adults [4]—the ability to access accurate SRH-focused information and education, as well as to receive developmentally appropriate, SRH-focused preventative counseling and clinical care [5, 6]. A rights-based framework also both recognizes that many young people face multiplicative barriers to adequate care based on social or economic factors (e.g., gender-based, race-based, or sexual identity–based discrimination, poverty, residential instability, migration, military conflict) [7, 8, 9]. As health professionals who operate in a political environment that continually threatens the well-being of young people, we are well aware that both marginalized and disenfranchised youth experience the greatest problems every day to obtaining SRH services [10] and suffer the highest cumulative burden of downstream consequences in adulthood when SRH care needs are not met [11, 12]. Now more than ever, we must double down on our efforts to be front-line defenders of adolescent and young adult SRH rights. Such active stewardship requires us to pay careful attention—as clinicians, as educators and as researchers—and continually commit ourselves to engaging in evidence-based approaches that highlight how and when interlocking sources of disadvantage create unique vulnerabilities in young people’s access to SRH [13].

One way in which we expand our evidence base in ways consistent with a sexual rights perspective is choosing data analysis techniques that are deliberately intended to model the overlap in factors known to create obstacles to SRH [14, 15]. In this issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health, Hill et al. [16] provide an important application of these principles, using latent class analysis (LCA) to identify how syndemic patterns—or clusters of co-occurring behavioral, socioeconomic, and environmental factors [17, 18, 19]—interact to increase vulnerability to sexually transmitted infection (STI) among young adults in the United States…

Journal of Adolescent Health
March 2019 Volume 64, Issue 3, p283-418
https://www.jahonline.org/issue/S1054-139X(18)X0005-6

Review Article
A Systematic Global Review of Condom Availability Programs in High Schools
Eda Algur, Elin Wang, Howard S. Friedman, Bidia Deperthes
p292–304
Published in issue: March 2019

Journal of Community Health
Volume 44, Issue 2, April 2019
https://link.springer.com/journal/10900/44/2

Original Paper
HPV Vaccine-Related Research, Promotion and Coordination in the State of Georgia: A Systematic Review
Cori Dennison, Adrian R. King, Hannah Rutledge…

Journal of Community Health
Volume 44, Issue 2, April 2019
https://link.springer.com/journal/10900/44/2

Original Paper
Children’s Pain and Distress at a Public Influenza Vaccination Clinic: A Parent Survey and Public Observation Study
Imane Ouach, Jessica Reszel, Yesha Patel, JoAnne Tibbles…

Journal of Community Health
Volume 44, Issue 2, April 2019
https://link.springer.com/journal/10900/44/2

Original Paper
Awareness and Knowledge of Human Papilloma Virus and Cervical Cancer in Women with High Pap Uptake
Ruba Alafifi, Tiffany B. Kindratt, Patti Pagels…

Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics
Volume 14 Issue 2, April 2019
http://journals.sagepub.com/toc/jre/current

Functioning and Outcomes of IRBs/RECs
Research Ethics Committees’ Oversight of Biomedical Research in South Africa: A Thematic Analysis of Ethical Issues Raised During Ethics Review of Non-Expedited Protocols
Blessing Silaigwana, Douglas Wassenaar
First Published January 24, 2019; pp. 107–116

Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics
Volume 14 Issue 2, April 2019
http://journals.sagepub.com/toc/jre/current

Ethical Issues in Research with Marginalized Groups
Inclusion of Marginalized Groups and Communities in Global Health Research Priority-Setting
Bridget Pratt
First Published March 13, 2019; pp. 169–181
Abstract
Community engagement is gaining prominence in global health research. But community members, especially those from groups and communities that are considered disadvantaged and marginalized, rarely have a say in the agendas and priorities of the research projects that aim to help them. This article explores how to achieve their inclusion in priority-setting for global health research projects. A total of 29 in-depth interviews and one focus group were undertaken with researchers, research ethicists, community engagement practitioners, and community-based organization staff. Thematic analysis identified two core dimensions of inclusion—representation and voice—and what is necessary to realize them with marginalized groups and communities in global health research priority-setting. A set of ethical considerations is proposed to assist researchers and their partners design more inclusive priority-setting processes.

The Lancet
Mar 16, 2019, Volume 393  Number 10176  p1071-1176
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/issue/current

Editorial
WHO reform continues to confuse
The Lancet
The content of a reform for WHO came as somewhat of a surprise to many in the global health community. After Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in his inaugural speech, said “I do not believe in perpetual reform and I think WHO staff are reformed out”, WHO’s Director-General unveiled the result of a 20-month-long consultation for reform. Aimed to be “the most wide-ranging reforms in the organisation’s history”, according to the accompanying press release, this reform is a substantial top-heavy redesign of the internal structure of the WHO Secretariat.

The reform was announced in a speech to staff on March 6. In the speech, Dr Tedros and WHO’s six Regional Directors (RDs) took turns to speak about the reform. Historically, WHO has often been referred to as not one but seven WHOs. That RDs are locally elected, thus retaining significant autonomy over their regional and country priorities, has often been said adds fragmentation and compartmentalisation to the organisation. By calling on the RDs to be part and parcel of the announcement, Dr Tedros reiterated the message of one WHO.

The reform is aimed to “address gaps in [universal health coverage], health emergencies, and healthier populations”, guided by Dr Tedros’s Triple Billion targets. From March 15, there will be only one Deputy Director-General (DDG) reporting to Dr Tedros—Hungarian Zsuzsanna Jakab, formerly RD of WHO Europe—down from three DDGs.

The Programmes, which formerly reported directly to the Director-General, will now be led by Assistant Director-Generals (ADGs) reporting to the DDG (with the exception of the UHC and Life Course Programme led by Australian Executive Director Peter Salama who will be reporting jointly to the DDG and Dr Tedros). The new organisation of programmes reads somewhat confusingly. Where integration of the communicable and non-communicable diseases into one programme could create opportunities for more holistic approaches to disease, it is unclear why it was combined with UHC, or why antimicrobial disease was separated into a programme of its own. Importantly, the maternal, child, and adolescent health cluster, which one would expect to fall under the new UHC and Life Course Programme, seems to be missing from the organogram circulated to staff in an internal memo after the announcement, although The Lancet was told by WHO that it has not yet been finalised. This is all the more surprising given that maternal and child health was one of Dr Tedros’s five campaign priorities.

Indian paediatrician and former DDG Soumya Swaminathan was appointed to a new role, Chief Scientist, to head a division that is tasked with supporting, developing, and maintaining the excellence of the norms and standards of WHO. Notably, a new Division of Data, Analytics, and Delivery for Impact, headed by the American ADG Samira Asma, will not report to the Chief Scientist, but to Dr Tedros.

The perennial issue of WHO’s funding structure was also brought to the fore. Although WHO depends on reliable contributions from its member states, most of its funding comes from voluntary contributions, which can be highly variable and heavily earmarked for the donors’ interests. In his speech, Dr Tedros made it clear that he will be attempting a major reform of this system. The decision to take fundraising out of the programmes into a centralised fundraising department is “part of a much bigger shift in the way [WHO] generates resources, to diversify our funding base and make us less reliant on a handful of major donors”, he said. A new resource mobilisation strategy, the establishment of a so-called WHO Foundation, to develop innovative financing mechanisms, and a new yearly WHO Partners Forum were announced. This all points to the possibility that WHO’s strategy for funding going forward might be the establishment of a centralised pot of money for voluntary contributions. However, whether the member states and major donors, such as the US Government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, would be compliant with such a mechanism is uncertain. A week after the speech was given, experts contacted by The Lancet communicated their continuing confusion about this reform. As we go to press, a marked lack of communication surrounds the announcement and a detailed report explaining the specifics of what the reform means for programmes, oversight, funding, and staffing is not yet available. In the meantime, the global health community is still holding its breath, waiting to see whether this reform represents a transformational shift in vision for WHO or simply a shuffling of clusters and staff.

The Lancet
Mar 16, 2019, Volume 393  Number 10176  p1071-1176
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/issue/current

Articles
Progress in adolescent health and wellbeing: tracking 12 headline indicators for 195 countries and territories, 1990–2016
Peter S Azzopardi,Stephen J C Hearps,Kate L Francis, Elissa C Kennedy, Ali H Mokdad, Nicholas J Kassebaum, Stephen Lim, Caleb M S Irvine, Theo Vos, Alex D Brown, Surabhi Dogra,  Stuart A Kinner, Natasha S Kaoma, Mariam Naguib, Nicola J Reavley, Jennifer Requejo, John S Santelli,
Susan M Sawyer, Vegard Skirbekk, Marleen Temmerman, Jordan Tewhaiti-Smith, Joseph L Ward, Russell M Viner, George C Patton
Open Access

Nature 
Volume 567 Issue 7747, 14 March 2019
http://www.nature.com/nature/current_issue.html

World View | 11 March 2019
How Africa can quell the next disease outbreaks
As mobility increases, so must investments in national public-health institutions and local leadership, says John N. Nkengasong.
John N. Nkengasong

Nature 
Volume 567 Issue 7747, 14 March 2019
http://www.nature.com/nature/current_issue.html

Editorial | 13 March 2019
Germline gene-editing research needs rules
In the wake of CRISPR babies, there is an urgent need to better regulate and debate whether, when and how related research should be done.

Nature 
Volume 567 Issue 7747, 14 March 2019
http://www.nature.com/nature/current_issue.html

Comment | 13 March 2019
Adopt a moratorium on heritable genome editing
Eric Lander, Françoise Baylis, Feng Zhang, Emmanuelle Charpentier, Paul Berg and specialists from seven countries call for an international governance framework.
Eric S. Lander, Françoise Baylis[…] & Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker

PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News
Volume 823, Issue 1, March 2019
https://link.springer.com/journal/40274/823/1

Clinical study
Lump sum agreements may allow universal access to drugs
Moon S, et al.
Australia’s agreement to spend about 1 billion Australian dollars (US $766 million) over 5 years in exchange for an unlimited volume of hepatitis C drugs suggests that, under certain conditions, innovative approaches to payment can remove price as a barrier to access.

PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases
http://www.plosntds.org/
(Accessed 16 Mar 2019)

Research Article
Use of oral cholera vaccine as a vaccine probe to determine the burden of culture-negative cholera
Justin Im, Md. Taufiqul Islam, Faisal Ahmmed, Deok Ryun Kim, Yun Chon, K Zaman, Ashraful Islam Khan, Mohammad Ali, Florian Marks, Firdausi Qadri, John D. Clemens
Research Article | published 14 Mar 2019 PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0007179
Abstract
Analyses of stool from patients with acute watery diarrhea (AWD) using sensitive molecular diagnostics have challenged whether fecal microbiological cultures have acceptably high sensitivity for cholera diagnosis. If true, these findings imply that current estimates of the global burden of cholera, which rely largely on culture-confirmation, may be underestimates. We conducted a vaccine probe study to evaluate this possibility, assessing whether an effective killed oral cholera vaccine (OCV) tested in a field trial in a cholera-endemic population conferred protection against cholera culture-negative AWD, with the assumption that if cultures are indeed insensitive, OCV protection in such cases should be detectable. We re-analysed the data of a Phase III individually-randomized placebo-controlled efficacy trial of killed OCVs conducted in Matlab, Bangladesh in 1985. We calculated the protective efficacy (PE) of a killed whole cell-only (WC-only) OCV against first-episodes of cholera culture-negative AWD during two years of post-dosing follow-up. In secondary analyses, we evaluated PE against cholera culture-negative AWD by age at vaccination, season of onset, and disease severity. In this trial 50,770 people received at least 2 complete doses of either WC-only OCV or placebo, and 791 first episodes of AWD were reported during the follow-up period, of which 365 were culture-positive for Vibrio cholerae O1. Of the 426 culture-negative AWD episodes, 215 occurred in the WC group and 211 occurred in the placebo group (adjusted PE = -1.7%; 95%CI -23.0 to 13.9%, p = 0.859). No measurable PE of OCV was observed against all or severe cholera culture-negative AWD when measured overall or by age and season subgroups. In this OCV probe study we detected no vaccine protection against AWD episodes for which fecal cultures were negative for Vibrio cholera O1. Results from this setting suggest that fecal cultures from patients with AWD were highly sensitive for cholera episodes that were etiologically attributable to this pathogen. Similar analyses of other OCV randomized controlled trials are recommended to corroborate these findings.
Author summary
Conventional microbiological culture has remained a relatively uncontested ‘gold standard’ for the diagnosis of cholera; however, emerging methods, including sensitive molecular tests, challenge the current paradigm. One pivotal article demonstrated that culture failed to detect cholera in one-third of the cholera-positive stool specimens confirmed by other methods. This finding underscored the absence of a reliable reference test, further complicated by newer tests outperforming the gold standard, leaving no suitable comparator. In this study, we used oral cholera vaccine as a probe to investigate the reliability of conventional culture as a diagnostic for cholera by measuring the effectiveness of the vaccine against cholera culture-negative acute watery diarrhea. We did not find any evidence of protection, implying that the culture diagnostics used were reliable. The dynamics of cholera transmission require a rapid response, and ascertaining the best rapid diagnostic test for early detection of outbreaks will maximize the effectiveness of chronically limited resources in high risk regions. As techniques advance, well-designed studies should be implemented to systematically evaluate their merit against established methods, and improved diagnostics, including rapid diagnostics and microbiological culture, should be implemented into cholera control programs to reduce cholera transmission by creating a better trigger for outbreak response.

Science         
15 March 2019   Vol 363, Issue 6432
http://www.sciencemag.org/current.dtl
Special Issue – Pediatric Cancer

Reviews
The genomic landscape of pediatric cancers: Implications for diagnosis and treatment
By E. Alejandro Sweet-Cordero, Jaclyn A. Biegel
Science15 Mar 2019 : 1170-1175 Full Access
Abstract
The past decade has witnessed a major increase in our understanding of the genetic underpinnings of childhood cancer. Genomic sequencing studies have highlighted key differences between pediatric and adult cancers. Whereas many adult cancers are characterized by a high number of somatic mutations, pediatric cancers typically have few somatic mutations but a higher prevalence of germline alterations in cancer predisposition genes. Also noteworthy is the remarkable heterogeneity in the types of genetic alterations that likely drive the growth of pediatric cancers, including copy number alterations, gene fusions, enhancer hijacking events, and chromoplexy. Because most studies have genetically profiled pediatric cancers only at diagnosis, the mechanisms underlying tumor progression, therapy resistance, and metastasis remain poorly understood. We discuss evidence that points to a need for more integrative approaches aimed at identifying driver events in pediatric cancers at both diagnosis and relapse. We also provide an overview of key aspects of germline predisposition for cancer in this age group.

Science         
15 March 2019   Vol 363, Issue 6432
http://www.sciencemag.org/current.dtl
Special Issue – Pediatric Cancer

Ushering in the next generation of precision trials for pediatric cancer
By Steven G. DuBois, Laura B. Corson, Kimberly Stegmaier, Katherine A. Janeway
Science15 Mar 2019 : 1175-1181 Full Access

Science         
15 March 2019   Vol 363, Issue 6432
http://www.sciencemag.org/current.dtl
Special Issue – Pediatric Cancer

Science and health for all children with cancer
By Catherine G. Lam, Scott C. Howard, Eric Bouffet, Kathy Pritchard-Jones
Science15 Mar 2019 : 1182-1186 Full Access

Science         
15 March 2019   Vol 363, Issue 6432
http://www.sciencemag.org/current.dtl
Special Issue – Pediatric Cancer

Editorial
Data sharing for pediatric cancers
By Olena Morozova Vaske, David Haussler
Science15 Mar 2019 : 1125 Full Access
 
 

Vaccine
Volume 37, Issue 13 Pages 1721-1904 (22 March 2019)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/vaccine/vol/37/issue/13

Review article  Open access
Completeness and timeliness of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis, measles-mumps-rubella, and polio vaccines in young children with chronic health conditions: A systematic review
Emma J. Walker, Noni E. MacDonald, Nehal Islam, Nicole Le Saux, … Deshayne B. Fell
Pages 1725-1735

Vaccine
Volume 37, Issue 13 Pages 1721-1904 (22 March 2019)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/vaccine/vol/37/issue/13

Research article  Abstract only
Hospital contacts and diagnoses five years prior to HPV vaccination among females referred for suspected adverse vaccine effects: A Danish nationwide case-control study
Lene Wulff Krogsgaard, Bodil Hammer Bech, Oleguer Plana-Ripoll, Reimar Wernich Thomsen, Dorte Rytter
Pages 1763-1768

Vaccine
Volume 37, Issue 13 Pages 1721-1904 (22 March 2019)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/vaccine/vol/37/issue/13

Research article  Abstract only
Vaccine hesitancy and Web 2.0: Exploring how attitudes and beliefs about influenza vaccination are exchanged in online threaded user comments
Samantha B. Meyer, Richard Violette, Reenika Aggarwal, Michelle Simeoni, … Nancy Waite
Pages 1769-1774

Vaccine
Volume 37, Issue 13 Pages 1721-1904 (22 March 2019)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/vaccine/vol/37/issue/13

Research article  Abstract only
HPV vaccination and sexual health in France: Empowering girls to decide
Hervé Lefevre, Stéphanie Samain, Nour Ibrahim, Christine Fourmaux, … Jonathan Lachal
Pages 1792-1798
Conclusions
Teenage girls know little about this vaccine and are more sensitive to the emotional discourse that surrounds it than to rational knowledge about it. The requirement for parental authorization for this vaccine reinforces the girls’ lack of investment. Vaccination programs should integrate the HPV vaccine more thoroughly into general prevention concerning sexual health and should send a strong signal by offering minors anonymous vaccination free of charge, as is already the case in France for requests for contraception, the morning-after pill, elective abortion, and screening and treatment of sexually transmitted infections.

Vaccine
Volume 37, Issue 13 Pages 1721-1904 (22 March 2019)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/vaccine/vol/37/issue/13

Research article  Open access
Redefining vaccination coverage and timeliness measures using electronic immunization registry data in low- and middle-income countries
Samantha B. Dolan, Emily Carnahan, Jessica C. Shearer, Emily N. Beylerian, … Tove K. Ryman
Pages 1859-1867

From Google Scholar & other sources: Selected Journal Articles, Newsletters, Dissertations, Theses, Commentary

No new digest content identified.

Media/Policy Watch

This watch section is intended to alert readers to substantive news, analysis and opinion from the general media and selected think tanks and similar organizations on vaccines, immunization, global public health and related themes. Media Watch is not intended to be exhaustive, but indicative of themes and issues CVEP is actively tracking. This section will grow from an initial base of newspapers, magazines and blog sources, and is segregated from Journal Watch above which scans the peer-reviewed journal ecology.

We acknowledge the Western/Northern bias in this initial selection of titles and invite suggestions for expanded coverage. We are conservative in our outlook in adding news sources which largely report on primary content we are already covering above. Many electronic media sources have tiered, fee-based subscription models for access. We will provide full-text where content is published without restriction, but most publications require registration and some subscription level.

The Associated Press
https://apnews.com/
Accessed 16 Mar 2019
[No new, unique, relevant content]

The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/
Accessed 16 Mar 2019
[No new, unique, relevant content]

BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/
Accessed 16 Mar 2019
[No new, unique, relevant content]
 
 
The Economist
http://www.economist.com/
Accessed 16 Mar 2019
[No new, unique, relevant content]
 
 
Financial Times
http://www.ft.com/home/uk
Accessed 16 Mar 2019
[No new, unique, relevant content]
 
 
Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/
Accessed 16 Mar 2019
Mar 13, 2019
AMA Enlists Social Media Giants To Stop Spread Of Anti-Vaccine Misinformation
The American Medical Association urged big social media and tech companies including Amazon, Facebook and Google to stop vaccine misinformation on their platforms.
By Bruce Japsen Contributor
[See Milestones above for full letter]
 
 
Foreign Affairs
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/
Accessed 16 Mar 2019
[No new, unique, relevant content]
 
 
Foreign Policy
http://foreignpolicy.com/
Accessed 16 Mar 2019
[No new, unique, relevant content]
 
 
The Guardian
http://www.guardiannews.com/
Accessed 16 Mar 2019
Vaccines and immunisation
How to put the dangerous anti-vaxx panic in perspective: zoom out
‘Vaccine hesitancy’ persists despite the body of evidence showing that there is no link between the MMR vaccine and autism
Fri 15 Mar 2019 01.00 EDT
 
 
New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/
Accessed 16 Mar 2019
[No new, unique, relevant content]
 
 
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Accessed 16 Mar 2019
Travel
With Measles Outbreaks on the Rise, a Concern Over the Connection to Air Travel
A record 81 U.S. flights were investigated in 2018 for carrying at least one person contagious with the disease, which has had a large number of outbreaks this year.
March 14

New York
Parents Wanted Their Unvaccinated Children in School, but a Judge Said No.
Amid a measles outbreak in New York, a federal judge denied a request by 28 parents for an order to let their unvaccinated children return to their private school.
March 13

Europe
Vaccine Law Returns to Force in Italy, Barring 300 Children From Kindergarten
A stricter law on vaccination returned to force in Italy. Dozens of other children across Italy were also likely to be affected
March 13

Americas
Mumps, Other Outbreaks Force U.S. Detention Centers to Quarantine Over 2,000 Migrants
Christian Mejia thought he had a shot at getting out of immigration detention in rural Louisiana after he found a lawyer to help him seek asylum.
March 11

Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/home-page?_wsjregion=na,us&_homepage=/home/us
Accessed 16 Mar 2019
[No new, unique, relevant content]
 
 
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Accessed 16 Mar 2019
[No new, unique, relevant content]

Think Tanks et al

Brookings
http://www.brookings.edu/
Accessed 16 Mar 2019
[No new relevant content]

Center for Global Development  
http://www.cgdev.org/page/press-center
[No new relevant content]

CSIS
https://www.csis.org/
Accessed 16 Mar 2019
Podcast Episode
The Anti-Vaxxer Movement and its Implications on Public Health
March 12, 2019 | By J. Stephen Morrison

Council on Foreign Relations
http://www.cfr.org/
Accessed 16 Mar 2019
March 14, 2019
Health
Democracy Matters in Global Health
Panelists will discuss the links between democratic governance and global health.
Event by Joseph L. Dieleman, Thomas Carothers, Simon Wigley, and V. Kate Somvongsiri

March 12, 2019
Pharmaceuticals and Vaccines
Measles and the Threat of the Anti-vaccination Movement
Measles cases have spiked as a growing number of anti-vaxxers, opting out of immunizations for their kids, threaten decades of progress toward eliminating the disease.
by Claire Felter

Kaiser Family Foundation
https://www.kff.org/search/?post_type=press-release
Accessed 16 Mar 2019
[No new relevant content]

Milestones :: Perspectives

Facebook – Combatting Vaccine Misinformation
March 7, 2019
By Monika Bickert, VP, Global Policy Management

We are working to tackle vaccine misinformation on Facebook by reducing its distribution and providing people with authoritative information on the topic. We are starting by taking a series of steps:

:: We will reduce the ranking of groups and Pages that spread misinformation about vaccinations in News Feed and Search. These groups and Pages will not be included in recommendations or in predictions when you type into Search.

:: When we find ads that include misinformation about vaccinations, we will reject them. We also removed related targeting options, like “vaccine controversies.” For ad accounts that continue to violate our policies, we may take further action, such as disabling the ad account.

:: We won’t show or recommend content that contains misinformation about vaccinations on Instagram Explore or hashtag pages.

:: We are exploring ways to share educational information about vaccines when people come across misinformation on this topic.

How This Will Work

Leading global health organizations, such as the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have publicly identified verifiable vaccine hoaxes. If these vaccine hoaxes appear on Facebook, we will take action against them.

For example, if a group or Page admin posts this vaccine misinformation, we will exclude the entire group or Page from recommendations, reduce these groups and Pages’ distribution in News Feed and Search, and reject ads with this misinformation.

We also believe in providing people with additional context so they can decide whether to read, share, or engage in conversations about information they see on Facebook. We are exploring ways to give people more accurate information from expert organizations about vaccines at the top of results for related searches, on Pages discussing the topic, and on invitations to join groups about the topic. We will have an update on this soon.

We are fully committed to the safety of our community and will continue to expand on this work.

Milestones :: Perspectives

NAS, NAE, and NAM Presidents Highlight Facts on Vaccine Safety in Light of Measles Outbreaks
March 8, 2019
The current measles outbreaks in the United States and elsewhere are being fueled by misinformation about the safety of vaccines.  To help counter such misinformation, we created a website that provides clear, concise, and evidence-based answers to questions about vaccine safety and other commonly asked questions about health and science as identified through our partnership with Google.

The evidence base includes a number of our studies examining vaccine access, safety, scheduling, and possible side effects.  Our work has validated that the science is clear – vaccines are extremely safe.

Given our shared congressional mandate to advise the nation, we are compelled to draw attention to these facts in order to inform better decision-making at a time when it is urgently needed to protect the health of communities in our country and around the world.  Furthermore, we call on our professional colleagues everywhere to share these facts as widely as possible.  Please consider sharing our social media posts on your own accounts through the links below.

Marcia McNutt
President, National Academy of Sciences
C. D. Mote, Jr.
President, National Academy of Engineering
Victor J. Dzau
President, National Academy of Medicine

Milestones :: Perspectives

WHO unveils sweeping reforms in drive towards “triple billion” targets
6 March 2019 News Release Geneva
WHO today announced the most wide-ranging reforms in the Organization’s history to modernize and strengthen the institution to play its role more effectively and efficiently as the world’s leading authority on public health.

The changes are designed to support countries in achieving the ambitious “triple billion” targets that are at the heart of WHO’s strategic plan for the next five years: one billion more people benefitting from universal health coverage (UHC); one billion more people better protected from health emergencies; and one billion more people enjoying better health and well-being.

These changes include:
:: Aligning WHO’s processes and structures with the “triple billion” targets and the Sustainable Development Goals by adopting a new structure and operating model to align the work of headquarters, regional offices and country offices, and eliminate duplication and fragmentation.

:: Reinforcing WHO’s normative, standard-setting work, supported by a new Division of the Chief Scientist and improved career opportunities for scientists.

:: Harnessing the power of digital health and innovation by supporting countries to assess, integrate, regulate and maximize the opportunities of digital technologies and artificial intelligence, supported by a new Department of Digital Health.

:: Making WHO relevant in all countries by overhauling the Organization’s capabilities to engage in strategic policy dialogue. This work will be supported by a new Division of Data, Analytics and Delivery to significantly enhance the collection, storage, analysis and usage of data to drive policy change in countries. This division will also track and strengthen the delivery of WHO’s work by monitoring progress towards the “triple billion targets” and identifying roadblocks and solutions.

:: Investing in a dynamic and diverse workforce through new initiatives including the WHO Academy, a proposed state-of-the-art school to provide new learning opportunities for staff and public health professionals globally. Other measures include a streamlined recruitment process to cut hiring time in half,  management trainings, new opportunities for national professional officers, and previously-announced improvements in conditions for interns.

:: Strengthening WHO’s work to support countries in preventing and mitigating the impact of outbreaks and other health crises by creating a new Division of Emergency Preparedness, as a complement to WHO’s existing work on emergency response.

:: Reinforcing a corporate approach to resource mobilization aligned with strategic objectives and driving new fundraising initiatives to diversify WHO’s funding base, reduce its reliance on a small number of large donors and strengthen its long-term financial stability.

“The changes we are announcing today are about so much more than new structures, they’re about changing the DNA of the organization to deliver a measurable impact in the lives of the people we serve,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “Our vision remains the same as it was when we were founded in 1948: the highest attainable standard of health for all people. But the world has changed, which is why we have articulated a new mission statement for what the world needs us to do now: to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable.”

The new measures were developed following an extensive period of consultation with staff, and were developed jointly by WHO’s Global Policy Group, which consists of the Director-General and each of the organization’s six regional directors: Dr Matshidiso Moeti (Regional Director for Africa), Dr Carissa Etienne (Regional Director for the Americas), Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh (Regional Director for South-East Asia), Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab (Regional Director for Europe), Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari (Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean) and Dr Takeshi Kasai (Regional Director for the Western Pacific).

WHO’s new corporate structure is based on four pillars which will be mirrored throughout the organization.

The Programmes pillar will support WHO’s work on universal health coverage and healthier populations. The Emergencies pillar will be responsible for WHO’s critical health security responsibilities, both in responding to health crises and helping countries prepare for them. The External Relations and Governance pillar will centralize and harmonize WHO’s work on resource mobilization, communications. The Business Operations pillar will likewise ensure more professionalized delivery of key corporate functions such as budgeting, finance, human resources and supply chain.

The four pillars will be supplemented by the Division of the Chief Scientist at WHO Headquarters in Geneva to strengthen WHO’s core scientific work and ensure the quality and consistency of WHO’s norms and standards.

Underpinning the new structure, 11 business processes have been redesigned, including planning, resource mobilization, external and internal communications, recruitment, supply chain, performance management, norms and standards, research, data and technical cooperation.

The Global Policy Group stressed the role of working with partners. Dr Tedros said WHO must develop a new mindset to seek out and build partnerships that harness the combined strength of the global health community – both in the public and private sectors. One example of this is a new Global Action Plan for Healthy Lives and Well-Being for All, under which 12 partner organizations are working together to achieve health-related Sustainable Development Goals.

::::::
::::::

Milestones :: Perspectives

Editor’s Note:

We provide the full text of an exchange of letters between MSF and CEPI around the critical issue of equitable access to vaccines and how this is achieved and assured in the development context.

Open letter to CEPI Board Members: Revise CEPI’s access policy
MSF Letter  05 March 2019
Ahead of CEPI’s Board Meeting in Tokyo on 7–8 March 2019, MSF sent a letter to the organisation’s Board Members to express our concern and disappointment in CEPI’s revised Equitable Access Policy.

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) was launched in 2017 to finance and coordinate the development of new vaccines to prevent and contain infectious disease epidemics.

MSF engaged with CEPI as they developed and revised their Equitable Access Policy. CEPI’s original access policy contained clear commitments on pricing and the treatment of intellectual property, reflecting CEPI’s promise of public-interest R&D. The revised policy, adopted in December 2018, is a startling reversal. It does not ensure CEPI-funded vaccines will be affordable for people who need them most and does not protect the collective public and philanthropic investment that underpin the initiative.

Ahead of their meeting in Japan on 7–8 March 2019, we wrote a letter to CEPI’s Board to express our concern and disappointment in the revised Equitable Access Policy and to urge them to take swift action to develop and approve a new policy with bold commitments to affordable access and transparency for all CEPI-funded vaccines.

Letter

5 March 2019
CEPI
Oslo, Norway
Re: CEPI Equitable Access Policy
CC:
Cherry Gagandeep Kang, David Reddy, Ichiro Kurane, Jane Halton, Joachim Klein, John Nkengasong, Peter Piot, Rajeev Venkayya, Trevor Mundel, Richard Hatchett, Helen Rees, Peggy Hamburg, Peter Salama, Tim Evans

Dear Members of the CEPI Board,

Having cooperated extensively in the establishment of CEPI as a novel R&D initiative for public health-driven vaccine development, including as a Board member during its two formative years, we are writing to express our concern and disappointment in CEPI’s revised Equitable Access Policy, which was adopted during your December 2018 Board Meeting. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) was heartened by the creation of CEPI to break new ground in public-interest R&D because we believe it is a shared responsibility to ensure scientific and technological progress benefits all people – including the most vulnerable – and because we did not want to ever again be confronted with a terrible and deadly epidemic like the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak without any tools to effectively respond.

For Reference: CEPI Equitable Access Policy Documents

CEPI’s original ‘Equitable Access’ Policy, 2017.
CEPI’s revised ‘Equitable Access’ Policy for consultation, 2018.

As a medical humanitarian organisation, MSF witnesses the deadly impact of inequitable access to lifesaving drugs and vaccines on a daily basis. For the past 20 years, we have advocated for governments, companies and civil society to assume collective responsibility for ensuring that medical innovation addresses the neglected health needs of people who are most in need. This cannot be achieved through business-as-usual approaches; it requires an innovative approach with a strong public commitment to adopt and enforce transparent, public health-focused rules of engagement with research partners – including the private sector.

CEPI’s revised Equitable Access Policy constitutes an alarming step backwards for the organisation because it no longer guarantees that the vaccines CEPI funds will be made available at an affordable price. It also provides no basis for CEPI to be held accountable to its public and philanthropic investors in its agreements with development partners on the ownership and treatment of intellectual property or the pricing of CEPI-funded vaccines. By replacing the previously detailed equitable access policy with only a broad statement of principle, the revised policy marks a concerning pivot away from CEPI’s early commitments to access, transparency and openness, and to breaking new ground in terms of public responsibility. It betrays the interests of everyone who invested in CEPI because they wanted to change the deadly status quo.

When CEPI was established, its interim Board committed to a strong and visionary access policy to guarantee equitable access to CEPI-funded vaccines, developed with the support of legal experts from WHO, Wellcome Trust and MSF. It contained important safeguards including enforceable commitments on pricing and intellectual property, grounded in transparency and disclosure of information and knowledge. Regrettably, the Board failed to ensure the policy was implemented and used to shape access provisions in the contractual agreements CEPI signed with developers. Instead, supposedly in response to industry actors’ dissatisfaction with the policy, it immediately gave in on its founding principles and decided to revise the access policy.

Over the summer, MSF provided repeated detailed and constructive feedback on the proposed revisions, including a proposal that an Access Advisory Committee of relevant experts be established to provide independent review of the legal agreements concluded with commercial developers from an access perspective. We also suggested ways to integrate access considerations at critical steps along the pathway of vaccines R&D. At the October 2018 Board meeting, we again raised our concerns about the weakening of CEPI’s initial access commitments.

Ultimately, the Board lacked the courage to maintain the critical safeguards built in to the original access policy. We were disappointed to learn that it was replaced by a vague, toothless and weak new policy in December 2018, disregarding our concerns and proposals, while delegating the development of more detailed, but secret, implementation guidance to the Secretariat.

As you meet as a Board later this week in Tokyo, we urge you to reconsider this change in direction, which stands in stark contrast to the original intent of CEPI. We ask that you agree to work quickly to revise your current policy and come to your next Board meeting in June ready to adopt these revisions. The unique thing about CEPI is not the science, but the unprecedented levels of public and philanthropic money provided to make the science possible, in the interest of global public health. CEPI must live up to its promises to break new ground in vaccine R&D and do things differently. At a minimum, this requires the Board to step up now and reintroduce an unapologetic commitment to affordable access and transparency.

Sincerely,

Dr Joanne Liu
MSF International President           

Dr Els Torreele
Executive Director, MSF Access Campaign

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CEPI’s statement in response to MSF’s open letter on equitable access.
Updated March 8
We share MSF’s view on the importance of access to needed vaccines.

The world now has 21 vaccines under development with CEPI funding. We are already engaging with affected countries to ensure that people who need them get them. Our commitment to access is unwavering and our ability to deliver is enhanced by experience.

We’re currently working with affected countries such as Nigeria, DRC, Bangladesh, and India as well as collaborating with public, private, and academic partners to get life-saving vaccines out of the lab and into the clinic so affected populations can benefit.

Achieving our aim requires working with multiple partners and taking multiple approaches to achieve the desired equitable access objectives. As a result of consultation, CEPI’s Equitable Access Policy has evolved from a “rules-based approach” that previously mandated specific access requirements that proved to be a barrier to many potential partners, to a “principles-based approach” that provides a robust foundation for advancing equitable access.

In practice, this means creating legally binding agreements with our partners that embed the principle of equitable access from the outset and which deploy a range of mechanisms for its realisation—whether that be through establishing requirements on access to vaccines (including price) for affected populations or ensuring that data, information, and materials arising from CEPI-funded R&D are rapidly and openly available for further study and research.

Over the past year, we’ve committed to investing up to $350 million in the development of potentially life-saving vaccines. We can now say with assurance that access will be delivered in all circumstances not just those specified in the previous policy.

We appreciate that it’s important this commitment is visible and understood by our partners. So, with the agreements relating to initial calls for proposals now complete, we will publish how access is being achieved for our developing vaccine portfolio by the end of March, 2019.

CEPI’s Equitable Access Policy is available here.

Milestones :: Perspectives

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb Announces He Will Resign
March 5, 20194:08 PM ET
Laurel Wamsley

The commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, Scott Gottlieb, announced Tuesday that he is resigning the position, effective in one month.

Gottlieb won approval from many as an effective advocate for public health. Within the Trump administration, he stood out for his efforts to more tightly regulate several industries; he’s been particularly intent on curbing vaping and making generic drugs more accessible.

Gottlieb is a physician who was previously the FDA’s Deputy Commissioner for Medical and Scientific Affairs. He became commissioner in May 2017. The reasons for his resignation are not yet clear, but it appears it was not requested by the White House.

President Trump tweeted his high regard for the commissioner on Tuesday afternoon, writing that he has done “an absolutely terrific job. …. Scott has helped us to lower drug prices, get a record number of generic drugs approved and onto the market, and so many other things. He and his talents will be greatly missed!”

Gottlieb tweeted in return that he was “immensely grateful for the opportunity” to lead the agency…