To highlight the extensive body of knowledge collected in developing the Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP), the journal Vaccine today released a special supplement dedicated in full to the Decade of Vaccines.

The number of polio cases has plummeted in the last 25 years, from 300,000 to less than 300. Even so, last May the World Health Organization declared that global eradication of polio, reaching that last 0.1 percent, was a “programmatic emergency for global public health.”

When discussing public health campaigns and disease prevention, most people want to immediately jump to the solution – we want a vaccine, a cure, a narrative – so we can stop the cycle of disease and suffering. But we must remember to crawl before we walk, and this cliché could not ring more true than in the world of disease monitoring and surveillance, particularly for a disease like pneumococcal, a deadly bacterial infection that kills more than 1.6 million people annually, including half a million children.

On Tuesday, two of Sabin Vaccine Institute’s senior executives, Dr. Peter Hotez and Dr. Ciro de Quadros, were named among the “Top 50 Global Vaccine Influencers” by Vaccine Nation. Both Dr. Hotez and Dr. de Quadros have made significant contributions in global health throughout their careers and the countless lives they have touched stand as a testament to their vaccine advocacy and development efforts.

Health workers don’t just play a significant part in achieving many global health goals; they are on the ground making these goals possible.

Just weeks ago, Tanzania became the 8th country in Africa to make rotavirus vaccination part of its childhood immunization program.