All potential eligible patients have the right to access Advanced Therapies Medical Products (ATMPs) and national health budget constraints cannot be a barrier to this. Read ACN Director’s article published on Active Citizenship Network’s media partner Health Europa on the occasion of the event “Securing Equitable Patient Access to Advanced Therapies across Europe”, realized Monday 24 of October 2022 by Active Citizenship Network at the EU Parliament.
Italy’s experience with pneumococcal vaccination points the way forward in fighting respiratory illnesses. Read the article written by Active Citizenship Network Director and just published on VaccineToday.
In the framework of the media partnership with Epidemiology and Public Health Research (EPHR), a journal focused on research and reports discussing about public health, epidemiology and progress that have been made to enhance societies' healthcare internationally, Active Citizenship Network has published, last December 2021, a manuscript entitled “Influenza vaccination at the time of Covid-19: From the Italian case history to the “EU Flu Day”, discussing about how the national (Italian) and European contexts managed the administration of flu vaccination during the Covid-19 pandemic. To do this, the article puts forward the results emerged from the civic survey on the supply of flu vaccine doses conducted by Cittadinanzattiva in September 2020 across Italy and introduces the second EU survey entitled "Addressing the challenges of concomitant deployment of COVID-19 and influenza vaccination" launched by ACN on the occasion of the EU Flu Day 2021.
Last 22 April 2022, Active Citizenship Network has published an article entitled “Addressing the Challenges of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Routine Vaccinations across Europe: Focus on Flu Vaccination” on the International Journal of Virology & Infectious Diseases, an international, peer reviewed, open access, scholarly journal that brings about latest research in all related aspects of virology and infectious diseases. The published manuscript discusses about the challenges of dealing with the concomitant deployment of COVID-19 and influenza vaccination, exploring the results emerged from the II EU online survey, realized in October-November 2021 by Active Citizenship Network in the framework of its #VaccinAction2021 EU project entitled “Protecting the value of vaccination during - and after - the COVID-19 pandemic across Europe: impact, experiences and perspectives from citizens’ and patients’ advocacy groups & relevant stakeholders”.
Last 2 September 2022, Active Citizenship Network published a new manuscript dealing with the significance of adult vaccination entitled “Addressing the Burden of the Vaccine-Preventable Respiratory Diseases: From the Pneumococcal Vaccination Case Study in Italy to the EU Council Conclusion on (adult) Vaccination”on the SL Vaccines and Vaccination Journal, an international peer-reviewed journal publishing novel fundamental and applied research related to all aspects of vaccines and vaccination. The article examines the growing burden that the trio of vaccine-preventable respiratory diseases (VPRDs), namely pneumococcal pneumonia, Covid-19 and flu, have been placing on healthcare systems among European countries. This is evidenced greatly by the data emerged from the EU survey “Pneumococcal Vaccination in adults: proposals for a fair and informed access”, carried out by Cittadinanzattiva in Italy in the 2021-2022 winter season and presented also at the EU level during the event realized by Active Citizenship Network last 7 July 2022 titled “Towards the next Council conclusions: which role of adult vaccination?”.
The pandemic has shown both the importance of vaccination and the vulnerabilities of the vaccine ecosystem that lead to a decreased availability of high-quality, safe, and effective products for everyone. Vaccines Europe’s members have analyzed the leading causes of vaccine shortages in Europe and discovered that the diversity of presentations, packs and labels in the EU is one of them.
The positive impacts of vaccination and vaccination policies in combating the global health threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) were discussed in the framework of the training seminar dedicated to antimicrobial resistance entitled “Resistenza antimicrobica: una minaccia globale. Cosa sapere per meglio affrontarla a livello locale” and realized by Active Citizenship Network on 4 July 2022.
The Adult Vaccination Advocacy Toolkit (AVAT), responding to an urgent call from stakeholders and advocacy groups, has come to life also thanks to ACN’s contribution. The toolkit is designed to help build the capacity and capability to influence and shape adult vaccination policy at local, national, and global levels through an evidence-to-action model of engagement across sectors and disciplines.
The demand for influenza vaccines has been increasing, therefore, anticipating better the need for future seasonal influenza vaccines and taking appropriate measures to prepare for pandemic influenza vaccine’s industrial and delivery capabilities is crucial to secure adequate doses for European citizens and protect them against influenza and serious complications. In this context, an EU Virtual Roundtable Day on Influenza Vaccination was hosted by Members of the European Parliament, Dolors Montserrat (EPP, ES), on 21 September 2021 and ACN was an active participant in the roundtable and gave, its endorsement of the originated recommendations, i.e. the outcomes of experts’ discussions how to improve influenza vaccines supply, forecasting and demand predictability.
How to answer vaccine misinformation online? How to track what is wrong and what is right? The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has developed an e-learning course addressing vaccination misinformation on social media and other digital platforms. The e-learning targets public health practitioners and risk communication experts at the national, regional and local levels in the EU/EEA. ACN has been identified as an expert in the field and therefore involved in the revision process to give insights and comments on the near-final version of the e-learning. Interested?
Please register for the ECDC Virtual Academy and try the course now.