Pediatrician and infectious disease specialist Dr. Xavier Saez Llorens serves as the Chief of Infectious Diseases and the Director of Clinical Research at the Dr. José Renán Esquivel Children’s Hospital in Panama. He has been a member of the National Committee of Bioethics in Research (NCBR) for the past 10 years and is recognized as a Distinguished Researcher in the National Research System (SNI, Senacyt) and at the Vaccine Research Center, Cevaxin.

Welcome to our seventh issue of Vaccines Beat. We are excited to continue our mission of communicating, educating, and promoting knowledge in the fields of vaccinology and vaccination. To kick off the year, we are...

A summary of the latest News & Alerts in the fields of vaccinology, vaccines, vaccination, and vaccine-preventable diseases. We curate the latest information on regulatory updates, emerging trends, breakthroughs in vaccine technology, vaccine safety and efficacy, global immunization developments and outbreak alerts, as a resource to keep our community informed.

Latest impactful scientific publications that stand out for their potential bearing on healthcare. We introduce groundbreaking research findings, innovative treatment modalities, results from phase 1 to 3 vaccine clinical trials, or paradigm-shifting discoveries that redefine our understanding of infectious diseases and therapeutic approaches for all vaccine-preventable diseases.

The primary goal of vaccination is to immunize susceptible individuals against a pathogen, preventing outcomes that range from asymptomatic infection (with the potential for onward transmission) to clinical disease, hospitalization, long-term complications, and death. At...

Learning from our most recent pandemic experience (COVID-19) must provide us with help to handle much better future pandemic threats. First and subsequent responders have a central role in the handling of these potential...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) is responsible for regulating vaccine use in the United States. The general stages of vaccine development are: Research and Discovery Proof of Concept ...

Event Overview: The 12th Congress of the Federation of African Immunological Societies (FAIS 2024) was held from December 10–13, 2024, at the Palais des Congrès in Cotonou, Benin. This was the first in-person FAIS meeting since 2017, disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The congress brought together 260 delegates, including scientists, policymakers, and researchers from across Africa and beyond, to address the theme: “Innovative Strategies Against Infectious Diseases and Emerging Immunological Disorders in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities.”