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Launch of Electronic Book that Compiles 2,500 Articles Published in the Newsletter Since 1979
Washington, D.C., 11 July 2011 (PAHO/WHO) – In its
over 30 years of existence, the Immunization Newsletter of the Pan
American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) has
managed to reach thousands of health workers in the most remote
locations in the Americas to share information on the vaccination
programs with them. To celebrate its more than three decades, the e-book
“Thirty Years of the Immunization Newsletter: History of the Expanded Program on Immunization in the Americas”
was launched on 8 July. This book compiles over 2,500 articles on
debates, new developments, projects, and research related to
immunization.
These notes, published from 1979 to the present, describe each stage
of implementation of the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) in the
Americas, a program that is considered to be one of the most successful
in the world. The notes are also a testimony of the lessons learned
about the subject of immunization during these years, as well as the
efforts being made to introduce new vaccines in the region.
“It is a witness to the milestones achieved in the history of
immunization of a continent that is highly diverse, but united in a
spirit of equity and solidarity, or Pan-Americanism, in order to achieve
common goals in seeking to control and eliminate vaccine-preventable
diseases,” stated the Director of PAHO/WHO, Dr. Mirta Roses, in the
preface of this book.
The Immunization Newsletter e-book describes step-by-step how the
countries in the Americas have been leaders on the worldwide level in
elimination or reduction of vaccine-preventable diseases. The different
notes describe the advances and challenges the region faced in
elimination of polio, which was achieved in 1991.They also show the
efforts to combat other diseases: the last endemic case of measles was
reported in 2002 and the last endemic case of rubella was reported in
2009. Although imported cases are still recorded, mass vaccination has
prevented their expansion. Therefore, it is considered to be essential
to maintain elimination of these diseases.
The Immunization Newsletter is prepared by the PAHO/WHO Comprehensive
Family Immunization Project. It is the oldest newsletter in the world,
which is published every two months in Spanish, English, and French. It
has been published in French since 2003. The newsletter reaches over
7,500 people in the region and in the world free of charge. Since it
began, its purpose has been to facilitate the exchange of ideas and
information on the vaccination programs implemented in the region, so
that more people in the health sector learn about the problems and
possible solutions that have been attempted in other places.
Up until the present the aim has been for the Newsletter to reach all
people that are in some way associated with or work with the subject of
immunization: from vaccination program managers, pediatricians,
infectious disease specialists, epidemiologists, and nurses to health
workers that provide vaccines in remote or isolated areas of the
Americas. For a long time, the print version of the newsletter has
reached the most remote zip codes in the Americas by subscription. At
present, it can also be accessed electronically.
With publication of this e-book, the Immunization Newsletter
relaunches its electronic and paper subscriptions for all those who are
interested in knowing about the advances and challenges of vaccination
in the Americas.
To subscribe please select this link:
Links:
Contact:
Leticia Linn, PAHO/WHO Media and Communication, Telephone: 202-974-3440; Mobile phone: 202-701-4005; E-mail:
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