North Korea introduced a mass measles-rubella immunization program in November 2019. Through this mass immunization activity, achieving more than 99.8% coverage in almost 6 million target population, the country has rapidly built substantial population immunity for rubella.
For centuries, this disease has afflicted millions of people worldwide, causing pain, severe disability and social stigmatization. It is now the second neglected tropical disease (NTD) that the Southeast Asian country has eliminated following the elimination of trachoma as a public health problem in 2017.
The R21/Matrix-M vaccine, developed at Oxford University, is expected to offer countries a cheaper and more readily available option than the world’s first shot against the parasitic disease.
Over the last 3 decades, Belize has achieved a dramatic reduction in its malaria burden – from a peak of about 10 000 cases in 1994 to zero indigenous cases in 2019.
Nearly seven million deaths from COVID-19 have been reported to WHO, However, for more than a year the pandemic has been on a downward trend, allowing many around the world to largely return to relatively normality.
Over the past decade, rubella cases have decreased dramatically in the Western Pacific Region, as millions of babies and young children have been reached with vaccines.
The country was previously classified as a “high burden” country, which is defined as more than two percent of women living with HIV.
Forty countries now have best-practice trans fat elimination policies in effect, protecting 1.4 billion people from this deadly food compound, according to new WHO report.
The vaccine – called RTS,S and developed by PATH and GlaxoSmithKline – was proven effective in 2015. Now, after the success of pilot immunization programs in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi, the World Health Organization says the vaccine should be rolled out across sub-Saharan Africa and in other regions with moderate to high malaria transmission. Having a safe, effective vaccine for one of the world’s deadly diseases – after more than a century of trying – is a historic milestone for medicine and public health.
China has become the 40th country to be declared malaria-free. It has not had an indigenous case for four years.
