World Immunization Week

 For "World Immunization Week" Tabibu Africa, Inc solutes all persons and organizations on the ground, in the office, and those behind the scenes who are doing their part to bring immunizations to every child world wide. The World thanks you!

Photo Courtesy of WHO

According to WHO (The World Health Organization) progress towards global vaccination targets for 2015 is far off-track with 1 in 5 children still missing out on routine life-saving immunizations that could avert 1.5 million deaths each year from preventable diseases. 

 An estimated 21.8 million infants worldwide are still not being reached by routine immunization services. Close to 70% of these children live in ten countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Viet Nam and South Africa.

In 2013 nearly 22 million infants world wide missed out on the required three doses of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis-containing vaccines (DTP3), many of them living in the world’s poorest countries. The fatality rate for a person who contracts diphtheria and is given proper treatment is 10%, for infants it's 20%. If a person contracts diphtheria and it is not treated, which is the case for most individuals in developing countries, the fatality rate is greater than 50%. 
 

Worldwide, it is estimated that there are 16 million pertussis cases and about 195,000 pertussis deaths in children per year. Despite generally high coverage with childhood pertussis vaccines, pertussis is one of the leading causes of vaccine-preventable deaths worldwide. Most deaths occur in young infants who are either unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated.

Many countries worldwide have experienced large measles outbreaks in the past year, threatening efforts to achieve the GVAP (Global Vaccine Action Plan) target of eliminating measles in 3 WHO Regions by end-2015.  As many as one out of every 20 children with measles gets pneumonia, the most common cause of death from measles in young children. About one child out of every 1,000 who get measles will develop encephalitis (swelling of the brain) that can lead to convulsions and can leave the child deaf or with intellectual disability. For every 1,000 children who get measles, one or two will die from it.

A global collaborative drive for immunization, begun in the mid-1970s with the establishment of the "Expanded Program on Immunization" in all countries . This achieved dramatic results, raising vaccination levels from as low as 5% to more than 80% in many countries by 2013. WHO estimates that today immunizations prevent between 2 and 3 million deaths annually and protect many more people from illness and disability.

 

Photo courtesy of vaccineswork.org

Although progress has stalled in recent years, this early success demonstrates the potential of vaccines, which are increasingly being extended from children to adolescents and adults. The result is providing protection against diseases such as influenza, meningitis and cervical and liver cancers.

The GVAP recommends three key steps for closing the immunization gap:

• integrating immunization with other health services, such as postnatal care for mothers and babies;
• strengthening health systems so that vaccines continue to be given even in times of crisis; and
• ensuring that everyone can access vaccines and afford to pay for them.

Earlier this year, donor countries and institutions pledged to meet the funding needs of the Vaccine Alliance that brings together public and private sectors to create equal access to new and underused vaccines for children living in the world’s poorest countries

For "World Immunization Week" Tabibu Africa, Inc solutes all persons and organizations on the ground, in the office, and those behind the scenes who are doing their part to bring immunizations to every child world wide. The World thanks you! 

Photo courtesy of Gavi