An annual event observed between April from April 24-30, World Immunization Week aims to promote the appropriate use of vaccines and their importance to safeguard people against various health disorders. Though vaccines are a mandate for the health of every human worldwide, many children and adults miss out on essential vaccines, which increases their risk of contracting polio, measles, smallpox, and many other diseases which are otherwise preventable.
Under 2023's theme 'The Big Catch-Up', World Health Organisation is working to accelerate progress and raise people's knowledge of immunization's advantages, thus motivating them to get their shots on time. The campaign also aims to identify the challenge in gaining access to vaccines and reduce every barrier for the population across the globe. The theme's primary focus is to ensure everyone, particularly children get vaccinated and protect them from many life-threatening diseases such as smallpox, chickenpox, mumps, diphtheria, rotavirus, measles, and yellow fever.
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After the Covid-19 pandemic, the world has realized that unless everyone is safe from disease, nobody will be truly immune, and hence vaccination is imperative for everyone. The campaign’s prime focus is building lasting protection in communities and countries by restoring essential immunization coverage and reaching the millions of children who may have missed out on being vaccinated. This will also help in strengthening primary health care in every country in the world.
History Of Immunization
With its roots gaining momentum in Asia and Africa back in the late 17th century, vaccination took off in England at the end of the 18th Century after becoming understood to prevent smallpox. While developing a cure for smallpox, Edward Jenner, a young medical student found that people who had cowpox had fewer chances of getting smallpox. After having successfully conducted the necessary experiments, Dr. Jenner went on to give patients a light dose of cowpox to ensure their protection from this illness that created havoc during those days. Further progress was made in 1798 when Jenner conducted tests and experimented with vaccines on four children. These four kids who had been vaccinated with cowpox were also given a smallpox vaccine to protect them against this disease. Luckily, none of them caught smallpox. A great breakthrough in the world of vaccination was made which motivated researchers to develop numerous vaccines to prevent life-threatening diseases.
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During the last three years, it has been observed that in every region of the world, outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases like measles, polio, and diphtheria have gone high. As per the statistics, during the three years of the Covid-19 pandemic, the world lost about twenty years of progress and could not protect many children with routine immunizations. In 2021, about 26 million children missed their routine vaccines while 17 million received no vaccines at all. In the years 2021 and 2022, polio outbreaks were detected in many countries with very low vaccination rates.
Objectives Of World Immunization Week 2023
The covid-19 pandemic also made it clear that effective vaccines and immunization programs are important to protect everyone’s health and safety. Under ‘The Big Catch-Up' theme, World Immunization Week 2023 focuses on some of the following objectives:
- No child should be denied the right to any lifesaving vaccine available in the world
- Children who missed vaccines should be identified and given vaccines
- Building herd immunity-an indirect defense against infectious illnesses, which develops when a sizable portion of a community gets immunity to the disease due to vaccination or exposure to infection
- Raising awareness of the importance of immunizations so that governments may begin vaccination programs and implement them successfully
- To help us enhance our quality of life by keeping human beings disease and virus free, specifically after Covid and its corresponding strains
