GENEVA– There is a good chance that you know one of the 154 million people who over the past 50 years have been saved from a preventable death by routine immunization. You might even be one. In fact, surveying the past half-century, it is hard to identify a public-health tool that has had a more positive impact than vaccination, or one that has done more to promote global health equity.

Routine immunization programs, once the purview of the wealthy world, now exist in every country, owing to the landmark commitment that the World Health Organization’s member states made in 1974 to establish what is now known as the Essential Programme on Immunization. Initially, the EPI focused on ensuring universal access to vaccines against tuberculosis, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, and measles – all preventable child killers. Today, 84% of children globally are immunized against these six diseases, compared to only 5% in 1974.

But progress has been hard won. After rapid gains in immunization coverage throughout the 1980s, momentum was lost in the 1990s. The main issue was that lower-income countries lacked the resources and infrastructure needed to sustain immunization programs. Moreover, vaccine markets were fragmented and dysfunctional: countries depended on a few manufacturers, and uncertain demand deterred new entrants.

QOSHE - Fifty Years of Immunization Success Call for 50 More - Sania Nishtar
menu_open
Columnists Actual . Favourites . Archive
We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close
Aa Aa Aa
- A +

Fifty Years of Immunization Success Call for 50 More

23 9
25.04.2024

GENEVA– There is a good chance that you know one of the 154 million people who over the past 50 years have been saved from a preventable death by routine immunization. You might even be one. In fact, surveying the past half-century, it is hard to identify a public-health tool that has had a more positive impact than vaccination,........

© Project Syndicate


Get it on Google Play