Childhood Immunization and Public Health

A special issue of Vaccines (ISSN 2076-393X). This special issue belongs to the section "Human Vaccines and Public Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2025 | Viewed by 422

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Faculty of Health, Department of Medicine, Witten/Herdecke University, Witten, Germany
Interests: consultant pediatrician; neonatologist; pediatric gastroenterologist; global vaccination coverage; vaccine hesitancy; vaccine equity; mandatory vs. voluntary vaccination policies

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Vaccination programs have been incredibly successful in improving child survival and health globally over the past few decades. However, due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, vaccination coverage has significantly decreased, and the recovery process has been slow. Each year, around 20 million infants do not receive complete protection against vaccine-preventable infections, with many falling into the group that has not received any vaccines.

We invite you to contribute your research to help advance our understanding of global public child health. Your contributions should focus on factors that either facilitate or hinder vaccine uptake in different settings and strategies to address obstacles such as vaccine hesitancy and inequity. This Special Issue aims to take a multidisciplinary approach to generate new ideas for improving childhood immunization coverage, benefiting individual and public health.

We welcome original research articles, reviews, and commentaries for this Special Issue. Research areas include laboratory and clinical vaccine research, utilization, and immunization research.  We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Carsten Krüger
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • compulsory/mandatory vaccination
  • coverage
  • local vaccination culture
  • pandemics
  • trust
  • vaccination frameworks
  • vaccine equity
  • vaccine hesitancy
  • zero-dose

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

18 pages, 6632 KiB  
Review
Vaccine Research Trends in Africa from 2016 to Mid-2024: A Bibliometric Analysis
by Chinwe Iwu-Jaja, Duduzile Ndwandwe, Thobile Malinga, Lindi Mathebula, Akhona Mazingisa and Charles Shey Wiysonge
Vaccines 2025, 13(5), 509; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines13050509 - 12 May 2025
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Abstract
Background: Vaccine research publications play a crucial role in the scientific process by strategically linking the generation of knowledge with its translation into vaccine policy and practice. This study was designed to understand vaccine and immunization research publication trends in Africa to inform [...] Read more.
Background: Vaccine research publications play a crucial role in the scientific process by strategically linking the generation of knowledge with its translation into vaccine policy and practice. This study was designed to understand vaccine and immunization research publication trends in Africa to inform strategic directions for vaccine research and innovation efforts in the continent. Methods: We searched PubMed only for vaccine and immunization-related publications from Africa between 1 January 2016 and 8 August 2024. Metrics such as annual growth rates, geographical distribution, international collaboration, and trend topics were analyzed. We conducted separate analyses for general vaccine research, vaccine clinical trials, and vaccine evidence syntheses (systematic reviews and meta-analyses). Results: Vaccine research in Africa demonstrated an annual growth rate of 55.4% (based on the 10,000 records retrieved due to PubMed’s export limit), while vaccine trials saw a decline of 6.08% during the study period. The trend topics analysis across vaccine research, trials, and reviews showed that topics shifted from a focus on general vaccine development, immunization, and malaria pre-2020 to COVID-19-related topics in 2020, with post-2020 research returning to traditional topics like immunization schedules, vaccine safety, and pediatric and maternal vaccines. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic had a profound impact on vaccine research, leading to a surge in publications for vaccine research, trials, and reviews. About 65.8% of vaccine research featured international co-authorship. Vaccine trials had a higher rate of international co-authorship at 79.8%. Conclusion: While vaccine research in general in Africa has increased, vaccine trials do not match this increase. The number of clinical trials remained relatively stagnant, reflecting ongoing challenges in the vaccine research ecosystem, particularly in building and sustaining clinical trial capacity across the region. In addition, disparities in research productivity exist between countries. Research prioritization, strategic collaborations, capacity building for research, and improved research infrastructure require critical consideration. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Childhood Immunization and Public Health)
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