Abstract
Author(s): WHOâs Strategic Advisory Group of Experts
In accordance with its mandate to provide guidance to Member States on health policy matters, WHO issues a series of regularly updated position papers on vaccines and vaccine combinations against diseases that have an international public health impact. These papers, which are concerned primarily with the use of vaccines in large-scale immunization programmes, summarize essential background information on their respective diseases and vaccines, and conclude with the current WHO position concerning their use in the global context. The papers have been reviewed by a number of experts within and outside WHO and, since April 2006, they have been reviewed and endorsed by WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on vaccines and immunization. The position papers are designed for use mainly by national public health offi cials and managers of immunization programmes. However, they may also be of interest to international funding agencies, the vaccine manufacturing industry, the medical community, scientifi c media and the public