This article is part of a series of explainers on vaccine development and distribution. Learn more about vaccines — from how they work and how they’re made to ensuring safety and equitable access — in WHO’s Vaccines Explained series.

Countries around the world are rolling out COVID-19 vaccines, and a key topic of interest is their safety. Vaccine safety is one of WHO’s highest priorities, and we’re working closely with national authorities to develop and implement standards to ensure that COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective.

Ensuring safety

This article is part of a series of explainers on vaccine development and distribution. Learn more about vaccines — from how they work and how they’re made to ensuring safety and equitable access — in WHO’s Vaccines Explained series.

Vaccines are a critical tool in the battle against COVID-19, and getting vaccinated is one of the best ways to protect yourself and others from COVID-19.

Getting vaccinated is safer than getting infected

Vaccines train our immune system to recognize the targeted virus and create antibodies to fight off the disease without getting the disease itself. …

The sand coloured health centers dotted across Cambodia’s provinces are fairly recognizable, even to an untrained eye. Most sport a canopy of red tile roofs with verandas that serve as waiting areas for incoming patients. Ly Kanha grew up familiar with the ins and outs of Cambodia’s health centres. She spent most of her childhood in the care of her grandparents who were both working as health professionals at the time.

“When I was young, my grandfather took me to the health centre, and I saw medical staff wearing medical uniforms,” says Kanha as she recounts memories of observing the…

As the morning light settled over Nadi Town on 10 March 2021, Fiji’s frontline team, who have been leading efforts to keep COVID-19 contained in the country, waited anxiously for the first distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

Only 3 days prior, Fiji welcomed its highly anticipated first batch of COVID-19 vaccines, supplied through the global COVAX facility — an initiative set up to facilitate the equitable distribution of safe COVID-19 vaccines to all countries, as rapidly as possible.

These vaccines play a key role in Fiji’s response to the global pandemic, in addition to continuing with other public health measures such…

Spanish Foreign Minister, Arancha González Laya, reflects on the role of women in polio eradication after her visit to Chad.

Therese and Léonie reminded me of this hard truth in a recent visit to a hospital in N’Djaména, Chad. One is a newborn girl and the other is a veteran of the campaign to eradicate a human disease for only the second time in history –polio-.

As a Gender Champion for Polio Eradication, I have committed to supporting the global initiative to eradicate polio and the women who work tirelessly to protect children from lifelong paralysis. …

This article is part of a series of explainers on vaccine development and distribution. Learn more about vaccines — from how they work and how they’re made to ensuring safety and equitable access — in WHO’s Vaccines Explained series.

All viruses — including SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 — evolve over time. When a virus replicates or makes copies of itself, it sometimes changes a little bit, which is normal for a virus. These changes are called “mutations”. A virus with one or more new mutations is referred to as a “variant” of the original virus.

What causes a virus to change to a new variant?

When a virus…

Oxygen is an essential medicine used to care for patients at all levels of the healthcare system, including in surgery, trauma, heart failure, asthma, pneumonia and maternal and child care.

Pneumonia alone accounts for 800 000 deaths per year. It is estimated that 20–40% of these deaths could be prevented with the availability of oxygen therapy.

The WHO European Region includes some of the most remote locations on earth. The Saint Lukas medical train provides one solution to reaching such areas. Ten times a year, the train makes two-week journeys, stopping at about eight stations and covering 4000 kilometers of Krasnoyarsk and Khakassia in Siberia.