The world has become a much safer place to be a young child in the last 50 years. Since 1974, infant mortality worldwide has plummeted. That year, one in 10 newborns died before reaching their first birthday. By 2021, that rate had fallen by over two-thirds.

A lot of factors drove this change: lower poverty and better nutrition, cleaner air and water, and readily available antibiotics and other treatments. But one of the biggest contributors, a new study from the World Health Organization (WHO) concludes, was vaccines.

Read more at Vox.

We’re in the last mile in the fight to eradicate polio, but progress is fragile. As long as the disease is a threat anywhere, it remains a threat everywhere. A look at how UNICEF and partners are working to reach every child with lifesaving polio vaccines.

There is no cure for polio, only prevention

Since the introduction of the first polio vaccine in the 1950s, fully vaccinated children have been protected from the dangerous viral illness that attacks the nervous system, causing paralysis and sometimes death. 

Today, polio is on the brink of eradication, but conflict, climate disasters, displacement and vaccine misinformation are hindering efforts to reach some of the world’s most marginalized children with lifesaving vaccines.

Read more at UNICEF USA.

For most Americans, measles is an unfamiliar threat. If you’re my age, you might remember getting it as a kid — the mild annoyance of lying in a dark room, protecting your sensitive eyes and trying not to scratch your rash.

But here’s a more recent measles story, one of many I experienced throughout my 45-year nursing career. 

A 9-month-old boy lies unconscious on a ventilator in the intensive care unit (ICU). He had traveled with his family to Kenya to meet his grandparents. He is the youngest sibling and the only one who didn’t get his measles vaccines. Now his mom sits by his hospital bed, watching a machine breathe for her baby. 

Read more at The Hill.

As whooping cough cases are surging globally, some may wonder if it’s necessary to get a booster.

Cases of the childhood respiratory disease also known as pertussis are surging internationally and in parts of the U.S., according to a recent report.

Bordetella pertussis is a type of bacteria that causes a very contagious respiratory infection that spreads from person to person through small respiratory droplets, per the CDC.

Read more at Fox News.

Whooping cough outbreaks in Europe, Asia and parts of the U.S. should be a reminder to get vaccinated, experts say.

Since January, cases of whooping cough have risen sharply in the U.K. and Europe, the largest surge since 2012.

China logged more than 15,000 cases in January of this year, a 15-fold increase over the same time period last year. This month there have been small clusters of reported cases among high school students in the San Francisco Bay Area and several isolated cases in Hawaii. From October through earlier this year, New York City went through an outbreak, with more than 200 cases of mostly young children.

Read more at NBC.

With a resurgence of measles cases happening across the country, Colorado health officials sent emails and text messages to the families of 75,000 kids ages 4 to 6 whose records show they may be overdue for the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.

The goal is to increase MMR vaccination rates and prevent an outbreak.

“We’ve seen more cases of measles already in the U.S. this year than we saw last year, and it’s only the beginning of the year,” State Epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Herlihy said. “So we know that things have shifted and there’s more cases of measles happening right now.”

Read more at Fox 31.

A surge in measles cases is threatening the United States’ elimination status, which it has held for more than 20 years.

The US has experienced 338 reported cases of measles between January 1, 2020 and March 28, 2024, according to the CDCTrusted Source. Nearly one-third of those cases (29%) occurred during the first quarter of 2024, representing a 17-fold increase over the average number of cases reported during the same time period between 2020-2023.

Measles is a viral infection that affects the respiratory system and causes a distinct rash. The disease is also highly contagious.

Read more at Healthline.

The U.S. public health laws that require vaccination before entering school have prevented considerable pediatric morbidity and mortality, and yet, they are being eroded, according to public health experts and pediatricians.

In 1981, all 50 states had vaccine mandates for school entry with few exceptions. As of 2019, all 50 states still required some vaccination for school entry, but not necessarily all the CDC-recommended childhood vaccines. However, 29 allowed medical or religious exemptions; 17 allowed medical, religious or “philosophical” exemptions; and some did not require vaccination for homeschooled children, according to the latest report by the CDC’s Public Health Law Program (bit.ly/4amqKmk-IDSE). In addition, the documentation required to obtain an exemption varied by state.

These exemptions mean more parents can send their unvaccinated children to day care or school, endangering people in their communities.

Read more at Infectious Disease Special Edition.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released new data addressing the link, or lack thereof, between the COVID-19 vaccine and sudden cardiac death in otherwise healthy young adults.

The assessment, conducted between June 2021 and December 2022, investigated the death certificates and vaccination records of 1,292 Oregon decedents aged between 16 and 30 who had died of “cardiac or undetermined” causes.

“The data do not support an association of COVID-19 vaccination with sudden cardiac death among previously healthy young persons,” determined the CDC. The vaccine is still recommended for everyone aged over 6 months.

Read more at USA Today.

Don’t say we didn’t warn you. Pediatricians and public health official have sounded the alarm on declining vaccination rates — and the return of the diseases they prevent — for more than two decades. Measles, a once-controlled illness is now present in 17 states.

Recently release data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the United States is on pace for about 400 measles cases this year. (There have been nine cases in Florida’s Broward County this year — largely linked to local spread among kids at Manatee Bay Elementary.) The national number will surpass the total number of cases in the last four years. Not since the 2019 outbreak (more than 1,200 cases) in New York or the 2014 outbreak at Disneyland in California have more children been infected. Together, these three outbreaks threaten the America’s status as a measles-free nation.

Read more at Tampa Bay Times.