Your Global Point of Contact on Adult Vaccination
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The term “life course approach to vaccination” has generated important dialogue and facilitated policy change as evidenced in the WHO Immunization Agenda 2030 which calls for "strengthening global immunization efforts to leave no-one behind."
IFA has prioritized adult vaccination in the context of healthy ageing for over 8 years, building bridges across disciplines and sectors to improve understanding, confront barriers to access, and help inform national and international policy.
At the 15
th Global Conference on Ageing two premier events on vaccination will highlight groundbreaking work while debating some of the most vexed issues of our times.
The full-day
Vaccine4Life
Summit
on 31 October 2020 aims to inform the global agenda on a life course approach to vaccination in years to come, by bringing together global leaders in immunization, ageing, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and digital media, as well as civil society advocates, health care professionals, policymakers and ageing experts.
The
Presidential Symposium on 1 November 2020, entitled "The Social and Economic Value of Adult Vaccination: Why Prevention is Wealth," features thought leaders that will shed light on the multidimensional value of adult vaccination on the health and functional ability of older people.
Be inspired to join the call to action for "vaccination throughout life" and learn from global leaders on strategic communications, building the social and economic case for investment, and the role of educators and vaccinators.
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Influencing Policy to Improve Adult Vaccination in Germany
Munich, Germany | February 2020
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IFA convened an expert meeting
Influencing Policy to Improve Adult Vaccination in Germany
on 18-19 February 2020 to explore factors contributing to the low adult vaccination uptake in Germany.
This meeting built on the current discourse around the burden of vaccine preventable diseases within the German population and paid particular attention to its impact on the functional ability and health of older adults.
IFA was pleased to welcome experts from the Robert Koch Institute, members from national patient and advocacy organizations such as BAGSO and BIVA eV as well as communication and health specialists at the national and European levels.
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Creating an Action Plan to Address Gaps in Global Influenza Control
Geneva, Switzerland | January 2020
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Despite many achievements in promoting influenza vaccination, significant gaps in actions exist in global influenza control. For these reasons, IFA and IFPMA convened a network meeting on 20-21 January 2020 in Geneva, Switzerland entitled
Creating an Action Plan to Address Gaps in Global Influenza Control
, gathering key leaders to collaboratively inform effective solutions to this problem.
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Forum to Explore the Role of Patient Organisations in Vaccination
London, UK | December 2019
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IFA and Meningitis Research Foundation (MRF) convened the expert meeting,
Forum to Explore the Role of Patient Organisations in Vaccination
in London, UK on 6 December 2019. Leaders of health and patient advocacy organisations alongside experts in immunization, vaccine preventable diseases, and health policy gathered in an open and unbiased forum to develop tangible actions to improve vaccination rates for groups most at-risk in the UK.
Delegates left this forum with a rich understanding of the importance of collaboration to improve vaccination rates, as well as the challenges and opportunities health advocacy organizations face.
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Vaccination in France: Changing the Public Perception
Lyon, France | December 2019
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The effective reach of professional, patient and advocacy organizations with their local constituents is essential to addressing vaccine hesitancy and improving vaccination uptake rates on a national scale. The
Vaccination in France: Changing Public Perceptions
expert meeting served as a point of connection for leaders of patient organizations, experts in gerontology and immunization, and health care professionals to deliberate and agree upon potential strategies to address negative public perceptions of vaccination.
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Coming Soon...
IFA Vaccines4Life Knowledge Mobilization Platform
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In Spring 2020, IFA will launch the Vaccines4Life virtual knowledge mobilization platform. The Platform is a point of connection for individuals and agencies to debate, create collaborations, and partnerships on the most urgent matters related to adult vaccination, while providing essential advocacy tools and information.
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At the 146
th
session of the WHO Executive Board on 3-8 February 2020, it was resolved that the “Immunization Agenda 2030” will be endorsed at the 73
rd
World Health Assembly in May 2020. Furthermore, the "Decade of Healthy Ageing 2020-2030" which calls for a whole-of-society support of policies and practices that foster healthy ageing, was also endorsed.
Through these two resolutions, WHO Member States recognized that urgent action and concerted global efforts are
required to accelerate progress towards immunization goals and combat barriers faced by older persons in the quest for healthy ageing.
The acknowledgement by Member States of the urgency of both initiatives is underscored by an unprecedented focus on the need for a life course approach, which is critical to improving the lives of older people. IFA is proud to support this ongoing collective work which
enables older people to do what they value in a safe and equitable environment.
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World Coalition on Adult Vaccination
Member Updates
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The Confederation of Meningitis Organisations Inc. (CoMO) has released an Advocacy Toolkit in preparation for the upcoming World Meningitis Day on 24 April 2020.
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Vaccines & transplantation: ‘I need your protection’
A new video from Vaccines Today tells the story of Borislava, a young woman who has had two kidney transplants. She is vulnerable to infectious diseases and cannot have vaccines because she must take immuno-suppressive medication following her organ transplant. She needs others to vaccinate to ensure infectious diseases are not circulating in her community. The article is based on a guest
post
that Borislava wrote for Vaccines Today earlier this year.
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Other popular stories include a
feature
on the 10-year anniversary of EU Health Minister’s promise to vaccinate 85% of older people against flu. Spoiler alert: no EU country has hit its target, and some have a lot of work to do.
The race for a
Coronavirus
vaccine, the secondary
benefits
of flu vaccines, and life-course immunisation in
France
were also popular topics this winter.
Vaccines Today is currently preparing for European Immunisation Week and welcomes ideas for articles, guest blog posts and social media collaboration to
editor@vaccinestoday.eu
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Reaching Older People to talk about the Flu Vaccine
Age UK’s annual Winter Health Campaign provides holistic information and advice to older people, to help people to maintain wellbeing during the winter season. One of our key messages is for people age 65 and over to have the flu vaccine, and this year we are focusing on improving the reach of this messaging.
Data suggests that flu vaccine uptake for people over 65 across London is not only lower than the national average but also falls below WHO suggested standards. As a result, we have partnered with Age UK London, who ran an awareness-raising conference and a series of workshops in targeted locations. Age UK London also created a flu fighter toolkit & promotional materials enabling organisations to hold their own events.
By focusing on trusted grassroots organisations, new audiences can be reached and insight gained into practical, systematic, and social barriers preventing uptake of the flu vaccine among older adults.
Age UK’s Winter Health project is funded through an unrestricted grant from Seqiris, the UK provider of the flu vaccine for over 65s.
If you would like to get in touch with Age UK about this work please contact:
Lauren.Lovejoy@ageuk.org.uk
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Generations United’s New Infographic Shows
We’re Healthier Together
Generations United's
Valuing Vaccinations Across Generations
campaign is an international effort that promotes vaccinations through a lifespan approach by providing tools and resources to encourage intergenerational conversations.
The campaign in the U.S. — which Generations United launched in 2016 with The Gerontological Society of America and American Academy of Pediatrics — continues to produce compelling and shareable content to educate policymakers about the impact of adult vaccinations on all ages.
Generations United recently created a
new infographic
that illustrates the important role vaccinations play in enabling older adults to be healthy providers of care for babies and children.
There are 2.5 million grandparents and other relatives who are full-time caregivers for children. Beyond family ties, older adults also interact with children in community settings such as schools, parks, places of worship, and through coordinated intergenerational programs.
With younger and older people frequently connecting across ages, vaccines across the lifespan are necessary to help stop the spread of the flu, pneumonia, and whooping cough—vaccine-preventable diseases more likely to spread between children, youth and older adults.
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A 2 Half-day Workshop on Adult Vaccination in Singapore:
A Joint Effort by International Longevity Centre Singapore and UK to ‘Connect the Dots’ for Positive Change
The International Longevity Centre Singapore (ILC Singapore) and International Longevity Centre UK (ILC UK) co-organized and jointly hosted a 2-half day Adult Vaccination workshop at Rendezvous Hotel, Singapore on 14-15 October 2019. The purpose of the workshop was to bring together multiple stakeholders to discuss the state of adult vaccination in Singapore, and create a platform to learn about adult vaccination policies in Hong Kong and the UK, through research undertaken by ILC UK.
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The programme began with a half day public seminar featuring: Mr David Sinclair, Director, ILC UK, Dr Hsu Li Yang, Associate Professor and Head of Infectious Disease Programme at the National University of Singapore’s Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, and Dr Chikul Mittal, Medical Director of Tsao Foundation and public health expert.
Mr Sinclair’s presentation focused on findings from ILC UK’s research on adult vaccination in the UK and Hong Kong, while Dr Hsu shed light on the state of adult vaccination in Singapore, and Dr Mittal highlighted the ‘Health Belief Model’ to address barriers to adult vaccination uptake in Singapore. The presentations were followed by a panel discussion and Q&A session by members from the audience which included primary care physicians, hospital doctors and administrators as well as nurses from the long-term care sector. The Q&A segment was especially enriching, allowing for the opportunity for the audience to share their own practices of adult vaccination across healthcare settings in Singapore.
This was explored further through a roundtable discussion on 15 October 2019, bringing together a group of multi-disciplinary medical and health care experts across public and private sectors. There were infectious disease specialists, geriatricians, family physicians, service providers of the intermediate and long term care sectors, as well as specialists in public health and policy development. The half-day session was hosted by Ms Susana Harding, Senior Director of ILC Singapore and Dr Mary Ann Tsao, Chairman of Tsao Foundation and Co-chair of ILC Global Alliance, and moderated by Dr Ng Wai Chong, Chief of Clinical Affairs at Tsao Foundation.
Participants raised many notable points about current state of adult vaccination in terms of challenges and motivations of healthcare practitioners’, public education and awareness as well as issues of access and cost. They also readily shared examples of good practices from their experiences in promoting adult vaccination in their respective healthcare settings, ranging from top-down institutionalized policies to team-based public awareness efforts for patients.
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Nurses, Immunization and Health
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Implementing a Life-Course
Approach to Immunization
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Antimicrobial resistance and the role of Vaccines
New date to be announced.
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World Immunization
Week 2020
24-30 April 2020
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Mobilizing Patient Groups
to Change Vaccine Policy
14 May 2020
Brussels, Belgium
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A next-generation Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Vaccination for older people will be launching in mid-March for French health care professionals through the Université Grenoble Alpes and the Grenoble University Hospital Centre.
Francophone readers may enjoy the teaser video produced on the topic:
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World Coalition on Adult Vaccination
Welcomes 6 New Members
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Follow adult vaccination at the IFA
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![[Promotionnel] Teaser MOOC Vaccination](https://web-extract.constantcontact.com/v1/thumbnail?url=https://i.ytimg.com/vi/abAUg-ttZb8/maxresdefault.jpg)
