Immunizations are a proven public health intervention that most of us take for granted, preventing globally millions death every year. Furthermore, there are tens of millions of deaths which could be additionally prevented, if immunization programs would be adequately introduced and implemented. This is why World Immunization Week (April 24 – April 30, 2018) is so important to our collective efforts to protect everyone everywhere from vaccine-preventable disease, disability, and death.
We know vaccines work. It is no overstatement to say vaccines are among one of the most important advancements in the history of public health.
This week is important in another way – it allows us to remind everyone that, without vigilance and continued hard work, the remarkable gains we have achieved in protecting hundreds of millions people from vaccine-preventable diseases could be lost.
Investing into vaccines makes sense. For every dollar invested in immunizations, there is a 16$ return on investment (US-CDC). This leads to better health, higher education, healthier and more productive workforce, and stronger communities. While vaccines save and improve lives, still too many children do not have access to vaccines. Globally, an estimated 5.6 million children under five years of age die each year, and 15-25% are due to vaccine-preventable diseases. It is critical to ensure vaccines reach those who need them most.
Eradicating polio
Thanks to vaccines and years of determined, hard work, humanity is on the verge of one of the greatest public health accomplishments ever: eradicating polio. Polio is a dreaded disease that has caused worldwide epidemics in the past. In 1988, there was an estimated 350,000 annual cases of wild polio virus spread around across more than 125 countries. By 2017, those numbers have plummeted to 22 cases of polio only in three countries – Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria. Afghanistan and Pakistan continue to report polio cases despite allocation of huge global resources. Syria has had two polio outbreaks in 2013 and 2017.
The first example in history of an eradicated human disease is smallpox. This milestone came as result of an effective vaccine and the broad, sustained effort to immunize people worldwide against the disease.
20 million deaths prevented by measles-containing vaccines between the years 2000 and 2016.
In 2016, the number of annual deaths from measles dropped to less than an estimated 90,000 people. That milestone marked the first time annual deaths from measles worldwide fell below 100,000 per year.
That number obscures something important. Between 2000 and 2016, 5.5 billion doses of measles containing vaccines were delivered to children as part of routine immunization or mass-vaccination campaigns. That work saved an estimated 20.4 million lives.
Action for vaccine-preventable diseases
World Immunization Week is an opportunity to ensure that vaccines reach the people that need them most. We can improve the health of the world’s children by preventing diseases and to controlling the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases globally. Vaccines can also prevent against cancer – the notable example is the cancer of the cervix uteri where Human Papilloma Virus – vaccine provides an unforeseen opportunity to eliminate one important cancer altogether.
Vacccines are an important tool for public health in the fight against disease, inabilities and death.