Immunization: Power of vaccines under-utilised – WHO

The power of vaccines to ward off infectious diseases in children through immunisation has still not been fully utilised, the World Health Organization (WHO) says as the World Immunization Week begins.

“Vaccinations stave off 26 potentially deadly diseases,” Dr Margaret Chan, the Director-General of WHO, emphasised in a statement on the first day of World Immunization Week on Monday.

“At the same time, the full potential of vaccines is still not fully utilised,” she added, reiterating that when immunisation rates were high, the wider community was protected.

The week also marked the halfway point of the WHO’s goal to stop millions of deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases.

According to her, the protective power of immunization includes infants who are too young to receive their vaccines, older adults at risk of serious diseases and people who take medication that lowers their immune systems.

“Vaccines are one of modern medicine’s major success stories, having prevented at least 10 million deaths between 2010 and 2015.

“It has succeeded in tackling infectious diseases by making people immune or resistant, and stimulating the body’s own immune system,” she said.

Meanwhile, WHO has warned that the target of all 194 countries that signed the agency’s global action plan to eliminate vaccine-preventable diseases by 2020 was behind schedule.

The list with preventable diseases includes measles, rubella, maternal and neonatal tetanus, WHO said.

The UN health agency stressed that “in order for everyone, everywhere to survive and thrive, countries must make more concerted efforts to reach Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP) goals by 2020”.

WHO reported that by increasing immunization globally, the lives of an additional 1.5 million people could be saved every year.

This year, Immunization Week falls at the halfway point of completing the target set by GVAP to eliminate vaccine-preventable diseases.

The goal of the plan is to improve the health of all people by extending the benefits of immunization through more equitable access to vaccines.

According to the WHO latest numbers, an estimated 19.4 million infants worldwide were not reached with routine immunization services such as Diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP3) immunization coverage.

In one of the Immunizations Week messages, WHO recalled that Chan spoke on behalf of the world’s children, who should be a prime concern of all societies.

“No child should be denied the right to immunization for unfair reasons, including economic or social causes; all barriers must be overcome,” WHO quoted the Director-General as saying.

“Of the 19.4 millions children without lifesaving DTP3 immunization, about 11.5 million of them live in 10 countries

They are namely Nigeria, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Ukraine,” WHO said.

The goal of all 194 GVAP signatories is to achieve vaccination coverage of at least 90 per cent nationally and at least 80 per cent in every district by 2020.