The range of projects undertaken by the Vaccine Advocacy and Education program extends from small to large, from annual international meetings to multi-tiered global advocacy programs. Each project is aimed towards creating a more receptive environment for life-saving vaccines. Initiatives of the Vaccine Advocacy and Education program include:

Coalition Against Typhoid (CaT)

The Coalition against Typhoid (CaT) is a global forum of health and immunization experts working to expedite and sustain evidence-informed decisions at the global, regional and country levels regarding the use of typhoid vaccination to prevent childhood enteric fever. Sabin Vaccine Institute serves as the secretariat of the CaT through a three-year grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Dengue Vaccine Initiative

Over 2.5 billion people – two fifths of the world’s population – are currently at risk of dengue, and no drug for treatment or prevention currently exists. The Dengue Vaccine Initiative (DVI) is a consortium of organizations laying the groundwork for swift and equitable access to dengue vaccines, once available. Sabin, along with the International Vaccine Initiative, the World Health Organization, and the International Vaccine Access Center at Johns Hopkins University, is working to raise awareness of the need for a vaccine and the ever growing burden of the disease.

Pneumococcal Awareness Council of Experts (PACE)

Despite the availability of a safe and effective vaccine, pneumococcal disease—a leading infectious killer of children and adults worldwide—claims the lives of an estimated 1.6 million people each year, including more than 800,000 children under age five.

Launched in 2006, the Pneumococcal Awareness Council of Experts (PACE) is an international council comprised of leading global experts in infectious diseases and vaccines. Working in collaboration and partnerships with countries, NGOs, academia, and private industry, PACE seeks to secure commitments from countries around the world to introduce pneumococcal vaccine into national immunization programs.

Rubella and CRS Global Advocacy

While rubella, also known as German measles, is a relatively mild disease in children and adults, the consequences of infection can be devastating for pregnant women who develop congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) during the first trimester of pregnancy. CRS is one of the leading causes of visual, auditory and mental impairment worldwide, in spite of the fact that a safe and proven vaccine exists to prevent rubella.

Rubella has been eliminated from the Americas, but the disease remains a significant problem in the regions of Africa and Asia where the vaccine is not widely used. The Sabin Vaccine Institute’s rubella project aims to increase awareness among policy makers in Asia, Africa and Europe to create a receptive environment for rubella vaccines, with the hope of ultimately eradicating this devastating disease.

Sustainable Immunization Financing (SIF) Program

Immunization is one of the best investments a country can make for the health and vitality of its population and the growth of its economy. As national immunization programs expand and new vaccines become available, vaccine-related costs are rising faster than budgets, putting a strain on many developing countries. The Sustainable Immunization Financing (SIF) program assists countries in establishing fiscally sustainable financing for their national immunization programs. SIF and other Sabin Vaccine Education Advocacy programs work to ensure that decision-makers have the information and resources they need to introduce and sustainably fund safe and effective immunization programs.

In addition, the Vaccine Advocacy and Education program conducts the following programs in its efforts to increase immunization rates:

Burden of HPV in Latin America

HPV is the only known cause of cervical cancer, and is the second leading cause of cancer deaths for women worldwide. Approximately 470,000 new cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed each year, eighty percent of them among women living in developing countries with little or no access to routine health care. The Sabin Vaccine Institute (Sabin) joined forces with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to conduct a comprehensive study of HPV epidemiological data in Latin America in an attempt to begin to address this alarming global health concern.

Advocacy Activities for Meningococcal Disease

Meningococcal disease is a bacterial infection that can take a number of forms, including bacterial meningitis, and the onset of symptoms can occur suddenly and progress rapidly, with the potential to become fatal within a matter of hours. Meningococcal is particularly harmful for young children and adolescents. There are an estimated half a million cases of meningococcal disease globally, and 50,000 deaths, each year.

The Sabin Vaccine Institute is working to address this need through a multi-strategy approach to provide a broader base of knowledge on which to base advocacy work and future initiatives, while bringing together key stakeholders to better understand and fight meningococcal disease.

Improving Pertussis Surveillance

An estimated 50 million cases and 300,000 deaths occur every year as a result of pertussis, or whooping cough. This highly contagious disease, characterized by a deep and long lasting cough, is regarded as a major cause of childhood morbidity and mortality in developing countries.

The Sabin Vaccine Institute is working in partnership with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to determine the true burden of the disease in select Latin American countries, as well as to develop a model for improving pertussis surveillance, in order to guide prevention and control strategies.

Rotavirus Advocacy Activities

Since 2003, the Sabin Vaccine Institute has conducted advocacy to promote the use of rotavirus vaccines. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), rotaviruses are responsible for approximately 527,000 deaths per year, the great majority of these in developing countries. Two rotavirus vaccines are currently available and represent one of the best protection mechanisms available. The United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has found increasing evidence that use of rotavirus vaccines in the U.S. have resulted in a reduction in the number and severity of cases.

Routinely vaccinating children in developing countries may reduce mortality by twenty five percent. Moreover, routine childhood immunizations are a key piece of reducing childhood mortality by two-thirds by the year 2015 and achieving Millennium Development Goal 4 (to reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate). The Sabin Vaccine Institute is committed to raising awareness about deadly childhood diseases in the developing world and to increasing access to safe and proven vaccines to help prevent their spread.

In 2010, the global community celebrated the 30th anniversary of the eradication of smallpox, a marker of the power and potential of public health and vaccines to improve the lives of millions. To date, smallpox is the only disease to have been eradicated from humanity, but numerous other diseases—including rubella, polio, guinea worm and measles—stand on the brink of eradication. Recent milestones include pneumococcal vaccines introduced in 28 countries, four studies produced on pneumococcal disease and HPV – and used to support advocacy efforts related to these diseases – and four SIF partner countries increasing their national health budgets.

These results are encouraging, but more can be done. By expanding vaccine advocacy and education efforts to include other neglected and infectious diseases, Sabin can continue to bring attention to the needless suffering of millions of people around the world and the potential of vaccination as a “best buy” in global health. By mobilizing leaders and resources around efforts to develop and deploy sustainable vaccination programs, we can prevent illness, promote economic development, and break the cycle of poverty and disease faced by so many.

• Aga Khan University

• Bharat Biotech

• U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

• Center for Vaccine Development at the University of Maryland

• Crucell

• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

• GAVI Alliance

• International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC)

• International Vaccine Institute (IVI)

• Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

• National Institutes of Health (NIH)

• Novartis Vaccines Institute for Global Health

• Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)

• PATH

• Sanofi-Pasteur

• Shantha Biotecch

• Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE)

• UNICEF

• Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute

• Oxford University Clinical Research Unit at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases Vietnam

• Oxford Vaccine Group at the University of Oxford

• World Health Organization (WHO)