New global campaign boosts lifesaving vaccines

Girls await their turns to get immunised at Rusung Raya Elementary School in Indonesia.

Protecting a generation of children

In 2000, WHO, UNICEF and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation were core founding members of Gavi, the vaccine alliance, which was created to expand the impact of EPI and help the world’s poorest countries increase coverage; benefit from new, lifesaving vaccines, and expand the breadth of protection against an increasing number of vaccine-preventable diseases.

Today, Gavi has helped to protect a whole generation of children and now provides vaccines against 20 infectious diseases, said the alliance’s chief executive officer Dr. Sania Nishtar.

“In a little over two decades, we have seen incredible progress, protecting more than a billion children, helping halve childhood mortality in these countries and providing billions in economic benefits,” she said.

Delivering vaccines along the last mile

UNICEF, one of the largest buyers of vaccines in the world, procures more than two billion doses every year on behalf of countries and partners for reaching almost half of the world’s children.

To increase immunisation coverage, UNICEF also works to distribute vaccines to the last mile, sometimes using camels, to ensure that even remote and underserved communities have access to immunisation services.

The agency’s chief said it’s all about working together.

“We must build on the momentum and ensure that every child, everywhere, has access to lifesaving immunisations,” Ms. Russell said.

That’s the ultimate goal of World Immunisation Week: for more people and their communities to be protected from vaccine-preventable diseases. Learn more about what’s going on this week here.