World Immunization Week: How vaccines shape our world

Every year, World Immunization Week takes place in the last week of April. This is no coincidence. It coincides with the anniversary of the founding of the World Health Organization (WHO) on April 7, 1948.

The aim of the week is to highlight collective action to protect people against vaccine-preventable diseases. Vaccination helps protect children, adults and their communities so they can live happier, healthier lives.

As the WHO plays a central role in coordinating global health, dedicating World Immunization Week to this cause reinforces the overall health agenda and underlines the crucial importance of vaccines. It’s important to remember that vaccines have saved more lives than any other medical invention in history, and remain one of the most powerful tools in our fight against deadly diseases.

Here are a few facts about immunization worldwide:

• Over the past 60 years, vaccines have eradicated smallpox and are on the way to eradicating polio. Globally, vaccines prevent more than 2.5 million deaths every year. On a global scale, vaccinating children prevents around 4 million deaths a year. Despite the fears of some, scientific studies show no link between vaccines and autism. Vaccination makes a major contribution to the planet’s well-being, and is one of the most effective public health interventions. It is estimated that vaccination could prevent more than 50 million deaths between 2021 and 2030. 70.6% of the world’s population has received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, with an impressive 13.57 billion doses administered worldwide. Currently, 5,308 doses of COVID-19 vaccine are still administered every day. Despite the success of COVID-19 vaccination, the pandemic had a negative impact on global vaccination coverage, which had reached a plateau in the previous decade. The pandemic, and the disruptions and vaccination efforts it brought with it, put a strain on global healthcare systems in 2020 and 2021. As a result, there are a number of trends to watch closely:

• The number of children who received no vaccine – known as zero-dose children – fell from 18.1 million in 2021 to 14.3 million in 2022. This figure has almost returned to the pre-pandemic level of 12.9 million in 2019.
• The third dose of the diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP3) vaccine struggled in 2021, with 81% coverage. However, progress has been made and coverage has risen to 84% in 2022.
• The proportion of children receiving a first dose of measles vaccine increased from 81% in 2021 to 83% in 2022, but remained below the level of 86% achieved in 2019.
• Global coverage of the first dose of HPV in girls increased from 16% in 2021 to 21% in 2022.
• Yellow fever vaccination coverage in high-risk countries is 48%, well below the recommended coverage of 80%.

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References :

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Vaccinations – Our World in Data

Immunization coverage (who.int)

Global immunization highlights (cdc.gov)