A webinar to launch this special issue and commemorate World Immunization Week was held on 25 April 2023, 13:00-14:15 CET.
Immunization has been an exemplar in global collaborative efforts to advance health and social development. It is also a cornerstone of the world’s commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals and the imperative of “leaving no one behind.” Notwithstanding critical gains made in improving immunization coverage in the past few decades, recent evidence suggests that inequities persist owing to a complex set of drivers, that are as yet not fully understood. What is clear, is that context sensitive pathways and strategies are needed to truly universalize immunization; existing efforts do offer some insights in this regard.
Published in the international MDPI journal Vaccines, this special issue on inequalities and immunization places emphasis on dimensions of inequalities alongside drivers of inequity, while also starting to train the spotlight on pathways towards immunization equity drawing from individual country and globally networked initiatives.
The special issue has been a collaborative effort led by Ahmad Reza Hosseinpoor with Devaki Nambiar of the Department of Data and Analytics (World Health Organization), in collaboration with Carolina Danovaro-Holliday from the Department of Immunization, Vaccines, and Biologicals (World Health Organization), Hope Johnson (Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance), and Aaron Wallace (US Centres for Disease Control).
Aligned with the commemoration of World Immunization Week, the launch of this special issue includes reflection on ‘the Big Catch Up’ (this year’s theme), while also signaling the centrality of equity in meeting our global commitments to universalizing immunization.
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