The World Health Organization, the United Nations agency responsible for global public health, recently recommended universal introduction of rubella vaccination, a major step towards potentially eradicating the disease. The change in global public health policy removes barriers that have kept countries, primarily in Africa, from introducing rubella vaccination and was influenced in part by research led by scientists at Penn State.

“Many people suspected that the existing policy was too restrictive and that it was propagating serious inequity because countries needed to prove that they could meet established benchmarks for vaccination coverage. The countries that were failing to meet the benchmark were the poorest countries, and it kept them from additional resources that could help them do so,” said Matt Ferrari, professor of biology and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics at the Huck Institutes of Life Sciences at Penn State. Ferrari was part of the team from the Measles and Rubella Partnership, a global partnership founded in 2001 and led by the American Red Cross, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and others, that advocated for the policy change.

Read more HERE