Healthcare provider perspectives on COVID-19 vaccination for children in India.

Background: The rapid development and deployment of effective COVID-19 vaccines have been critical to halt the spread of the pandemic. India started vaccinating children in early 2022, however, vaccine uptake has been suboptimal.

Methods: Between September and November 2022, we conducted an online survey that was disseminated to eligible participants via email, text messages and social media platforms across India.

Childhood Obesity as a Global Problem: a Cross-sectional Survey on Global Awareness and National Program Implementation.

Objective: The rising global epidemic of childhood obesity is a major public health challenge. Despite the urgency, there is a lack of data on the awareness and implementation of preventative measures. The aim of this study was to identify areas for improvement in the prevention and management of childhood obesity worldwide.

Empowering Health Workers to Build Public Trust in Vaccination: Experience from the International Pediatric Association's Online Vaccine Trust Course, 2020-2021.

Background: The quality of interactions between health workers (HWs) and caregivers is key in vaccine acceptance. To optimize this, HWs need knowledge about best vaccine communication practices in person and on social media. Most pre-service curricula do not include such approaches.

A Public Health Research Agenda for Managing Infodemics: Methods and Results of the First WHO Infodemiology Conference.

Background: An infodemic is an overflow of information of varying quality that surges across digital and physical environments during an acute public health event. It leads to confusion, risk-taking, and behaviors that can harm health and lead to erosion of trust in health authorities and public health responses. Owing to the global scale and high stakes of the health emergency, responding to the infodemic related to the pandemic is particularly urgent.

COVID-19 Pandemic: Knowledge and Perceptions of the Public and Healthcare Professionals.

Background and objective The recent pandemic due to the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has become a major concern for the people and governments across the world due to its impact on individuals as well as on public health. The infectiousness and the quick spread across the world make it an important event in everyone's life, often evoking fear. Our study aims at assessing the overall knowledge and perceptions, and identifying the trusted sources of information for both the general public and healthcare personnel.

Global Polio Eradication,The Journey So Far.

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPE I), since its launch in 1988 has achieved more than 99% reduction in polio cases globally, using oral polio vaccine (OPV). Currently only two countries (Pakistan and Afghanistan) have not been able to stop transmission of wild poliovirus (wPV). In this article, we discuss some of the challenges faced by these two countries.

Role of Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) in Accelerating Inactivated Polio Vaccine Introduction.

Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance) is an international organization built through public-private partnership. GAVI has supported more than 200 vaccine introductions in the last 5 years by financing major proportion of costs of vaccine to 73 low-income countries using a co-financing model. GAVI has worked in close co-ordination with Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) since 2013, to strengthen health systems in countries so as to accelerate introduction of inactivated polio vaccine (IPV).

Estimates on state-specific Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccines (PCV) coverage in the private sector in the year 2012: Evidence from PCV utilization data.

The pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) is not available through universal immunization programs but is available through private healthcare providers. Because the PCV coverage rates are unknown, we developed a Microsoft Excel-based coverage assessment model to estimate state-specific PCV coverage for the year 2012. Our findings suggest that in the private sector, the "overall PCV coverage" was around 0.

Ending preventable newborn deaths in a generation.

The end of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) era was marked in 2015, and while maternal and child mortality have been halved, MGD 4 and MDG 5 are off-track at the global level. Reductions in neonatal death rates (age <1 month) lag behind those for post-neonates (age 1-59 months), and stillbirth rates (omitted from the MDGs) have been virtually unchanged. Hence, almost half of under-five deaths are newborns, yet about 80% of these are preventable using cost-effective interventions.

Pediatricians' perspectives on pneumococcal conjugate vaccines: An exploratory study in the private sector.

There is a lack of information on supply-side determinants, their utilization, and the access to pneumococcal vaccination in India. The objective of this exploratory study was to document the perceptions and perspectives of practicing pediatricians with regard to pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) in selected metropolitan areas of India. A qualitative study was conducted to generate evidence on the perspective of pediatricians practicing in the private sector regarding pneumococcal vaccination.

IAP Position Paper on Burden of Mumps in India and Vaccination Strategies.

Justification: Mumps, despite being a widely prevalent disease in the country, is considered as an insignificant public health problem mainly because of poor documentation of clinical cases and lack of published studies. In the absence of adequate published data on disease burden, Government of India has recently decided to introduce measles-rubella (MR) vaccine in its National Immunization Program and neglected mumps component.

Process: Following an IAP ACVIP meeting on December 6 and 7, 2014, a detailed review of burden of mumps in India along with vaccination strategies to control the disease was prepared.

Assessing providers' vaccination behaviors during routine immunization in India.

Progress has been made toward improving routine immunization coverage in India, but universal coverage has not been achieved. Little is known about how providers' vaccination behaviors affect coverage rates. The purpose of this study was to identify provider behaviors that served as barriers to vaccination that could lead to missed opportunities to vaccinate.

Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) recommended immunization schedule for children aged 0 through 18 years--India, 2014 and updates on immunization.

Justification: There is a need to review/revise recommendations about existing vaccines in light of recent developments in the field of vaccinology.

Process: Following an IAP ACVIP meeting on April 19 and 20, 2014, a draft of revised recommendations for the year 2014 and updates on certain vaccine formulations was prepared and circulated among the meeting participants to arrive at a consensus.

Objectives: To review and revise recommendations for 2014 Immunization timetable for pediatricians in office practice and issue statements on certain new and existing vaccine formulations.

More evidence on the impact of India's conditional cash transfer program, Janani Suraksha Yojana: quasi-experimental evaluation of the effects on childhood immunization and other reproductive and child health outcomes.

Background: In 2005, India established a conditional cash transfer program called Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY), to increase institutional delivery and encourage the use of reproductive and child health-related services.

Objective: To assess the effect of maternal receipt of financial assistance from JSY on childhood immunizations, post-partum care, breastfeeding practices, and care-seeking behaviors.

Methods: We use data from the latest district-level household survey (2007-2008) to conduct a propensity score matching analysis with logistic regression.