Differences in vaccine responses across populations present a key challenge in global health, affecting the development of effective vaccines and their equitable impact. Responses have often been seen to be poorer in low-income countries, especially rural settings. The Population Differences in Vaccine response (POPVAC) clinical trials, a series of landmark studies recently published in The Lancet Global Health, investigated these differences with the aim of contributing to better understanding of this phenomenon. Funded by the UKRI/Medical Research Council,these trials ran from 2018 to 2022 and focused on how environmental factors and chronic infections shape immune responses among adolescent schoolchildren in Uganda.
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