87.7% (93/106) of countries with legally-enforceable routine vaccination policies include specific enforcement mechanisms to ensure compliance with immunization requirements, though there was significant diversity in enforcement mechanisms.

Diseases w/ historically high morbidity & mortality, for which vaccines have long been available (e.g., diphtheria, measles, polio), were most universally included in policy. Recently emergent (e.g., COVID-19) and regionally endemic diseases (e.g., Japanese Encephalitis) were less commonly included.

We find that:
54.6% (106) of countries studied currently have legally-enforceable policies at the national level requiring childhood vaccination against at least one disease, yet there was significant variation in the number of diseases for which vaccines are required.

🧪New!
Access & Benefits Sharing (ABS) has implications for international scientific collaboration, medical countermeasure development, and the equitable exchange of samples & sequence data. We examined domestic policies relevant to ABS in all UN Member States: bmjpublichealth.bmj.com/content/3/1/...

Surprisingly, neither Covid-19 nor mpox featured heavily in the DON, and most reports occurred before the declaration of a PHEIC. Info was then disseminated through periodic situation reports - except when novel variants emerged. Notably, no DON report was released regarding the Omicron variant 🦠

Studying reports from the WHO Disease Outbreak News (DON) between 2020-2023, we find that outbreaks of viral hemorrhagic fevers and the avian influenza panzootic dominate the DON. We also find an increase in reports of climate-sensitive diseases, especially those that are vector- or water-borne 🦟💧