Several major announcements have been made in recent weeks about the expansion of vaccine access to the world's poor. This progress and the "Power of Vaccines" are the subject of a high level discussion today in Washington convened by the Center for Strategic and International Studies...

Today the global health community recognizes the third annual World Pneumonia Day with the release of two new studies on pneumonia and events in more than 15 countries calling attention to the disease, which remains the world's leading killer of young children....

Last week in Seattle, Bill Gates announced breakthrough results from a large malaria vaccine trial. The study, conducted in seven sub-Saharan African countries, showed that the most advanced malaria vaccine -- called RTS,S -- could cut the risk of malaria by as much as 56 percent...

This week the GAVI Alliance announced that 37 countries -- the majority in Africa, but all told, spanning all six WHO regions -- have been cleared for financial support to introduce one or more new vaccines into their national immunization programs. These include vaccines that protect children against...

If you're an adrenaline junkie and you want to pursue a health career, you're probably better served by becoming an emergency room doctor than an epidemiologist or researcher. In these careers, you may work a long time for uncommon rewards and infrequent milestones of success.

Yet in...

This blog entry is authored by M. Katie Charles, one of Orin Levine's graduate students at The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. This post is the first of a three-part series entitled "Tomorrow's Vaccine Policy Leaders."

Consider that you are among the 50 million Americans geographically relocating this...

By Dr. Orin Levine and Amanda Glassman

In low- and middle-income countries, children living in poverty are less likely to be vaccinated -- and more likely to die or become ill from a vaccine-preventable disease -- than wealthier children.

A perfect example of this can be found in Nigeria, where...

Like many global health professionals, I've spent days traveling by airplane, bus, motorcycle and foot to remote villages in Africa and Asia, only to find Coca-Cola distribution businesses thriving, while children visiting health centers remain unimmunized and without essential medicines. This observation gained public notice when it was...

More progress has been made in vaccine pricing in the past 10 days than in the past decade. On Monday, GlaxoSmithKline and Merck announced their decision to slash the prices they charge the world's poorest countries for rotavirus vaccines by up to 68 percent. This decision marks the...

Diphtheria. Measles. Whooping cough. Polio. In the minds of most of Americans, these are killers from a bygone era. If you think these diseases belonged to your parents and grandparents and not to our generation, you may be surprised to hear that these killers are making a comeback. And like...

When not focused on the forthcoming royal wedding in London, much of the world on April 25 directed its attention to World Malaria Day. In the U.S., we heard from the President's Malaria Initiative (PMI) that child death rates in focus countries have declined by 23-36...

You may have heard the news that a recently published report has revealed that the deaths of two mountain gorillas in 2009 -- an adult female and a three-day old male -- have been attributed to pneumonia. While not news at...

In 1986, as a sophomore at Gettysburg College, I accompanied my dad, a pediatrician and vaccine researcher, on a two-week trip to Rwanda. I was instantly smitten with Africa, and in the fall of 1987 I returned--this time to Kenya, as part of a study abroad program conducted...

"Global health? You must find your work so rewarding!" said a flight attendant who chatted me up on my recent trip from Seattle to Washington.

"Indeed I do," I replied, and especially right now.

The truth is, the rewards of a career...

In the past two decades, the international donor community has ushered in a historic expansion of global health programs. Through multi-country initiatives like the GAVI Alliance and the Global Fund for AIDS, TB, and Malaria an estimated 10 million deaths have been prevented by...

At the World Economic Forum this year, Bill Gates announced the Decade of Vaccines with a $10 billion commitment from his Foundation to support its aims and objectives. His projections suggested that expanding the use of existing and new vaccines can prevent more than...

Meningitis is an awful disease. It comes on suddenly, kills frequently, disables its survivors for life, and devastates families economically and emotionally. When it occurs in epidemics, as it does frequently in Africa's "Meningitis Belt", it has the power to disrupt entire communities and health systems (see recent...

Even the biggest fire starts with just a tiny spark.

I've always loved this phrase, as it demonstrates visually and powerfully that the most transformative acts of nature start with something small. This is also the case with great political movements. But how do you know when an idea moves...

A quick Google News search this morning using the term "pneumonia" brought up a bunch of stories. Most of them were about Canadian folk singer Bruce Cockburn, and the fact that his bout with pneumonia has forced him to cancel his upcoming tour in the Canadian Maritimes. Nowhere...

The GAVI Alliance has enjoyed 10 remarkable years. It's first CEO, Tore Godal, brought people and institutions together, gave GAVI a strategic vision and inspired innovation in an area of global health that...