Is health expenditure on immunisation associated with immunisation coverage in sub-Saharan Africa? A multicountry analysis, 2013-2017.

Objectives: The designing of contextually tailored sustainable plans to finance the procurement of vaccines and the running of appropriate immunisation programmes are necessary to address the high burden of vaccine-preventable diseases and low immunisation coverage in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). We sought to estimate the minimum fraction of a country's health budget that should be invested in national immunisation programmes to achieve national immunisation coverage of 80% or greater depending on the context, with and without donors' support.

Design: Multicountry analysis of secondary data using retrieved publicly available data from the WHO, Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) and World Bank databases.

Why are missed opportunities for immunisation and immunisation defaulting among children indistinguishable?

The two major global immunization agenda framings (Missed Opportunity for Immunisation (MOI) vs. Immunisation Defaulting) are interchangeably and inappropriately used in public health research and practice, with flawed or misleading strategies recommended and adopted in various settings around the world. This is demonstrated by the fact that many opportunities to incorporate findings from immunization coverage research into policy are squandered.

Addressing the social issues around vaccination could be the pivotal strategy to achieve the 2022 COVID-19 vaccination coverage target.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a public health emergency on a global scale, and vaccination has been shown to be effective in containing the pandemic. Social issues surrounding COVID-19 vaccination contribute to the level of skepticism and opposition expressed by a sizable proportion of the global population. The need to address socio-cultural and religious standpoints on COVID-19 immunization and related discussions is becoming more pressing as the pandemic's socioeconomic implications become more concerning.

Factors influencing severity of recurrent malaria in a conflict-affected state of South Sudan: an unmatched case-control study.

Background: The burden of malaria remains the highest in sub-Saharan Africa and South Sudan is not an exception. The country has borne the brunt of years of chronic warfare and remains endemic of malaria, with increasing mortality and morbidity. Limited data still exists on factors influencing the recurrence of severe malaria, especially in emergency contexts such as South Sudan, affected by various conflicts and humanitarian situations.

Are children on track with their routine immunization schedule in a fragile and protracted conflict state of South Sudan? A community-based cross-sectional study.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to assess if children aged 0-23 months in a conflict-affected state of South Sudan were on track with their immunization schedule and to identify predisposing factors that affected this study population from being on track with their routine immunization schedule.

Design: Community-based cross-sectional study using a semi-structured questionnaire. The binary outcome of interest was defined as being on or off track with routine vaccination schedule.

Why many African countries may not achieve the 2022 COVID-19 vaccination coverage target.

COVID-19 continues to strain, stress, and stretch health systems globally. With the development of the COVID-19 vaccines, there are many issues still lurking behind the widespread coverage; one of which is COVID-19 vaccine nationalism and African countries are not exempted from these issues. This is evident in that many countries in the African region missed the earlier targets set by World Health Organization (WHO) for COVID-19 vaccination coverage.