World Immunisation Week – celebrated in the last week of April – aims to highlight the collective action needed to ensure that every person is protected from diseases that are preventable once they are properly vaccinated. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), this year’s theme: “Protected Together, #VaccinesWork”, encourages people at every level – from donors to the general public – to go further in their efforts to increase immunization coverage for the greater good.
Immunization is the process whereby a person is made immune or resistant to an infectious disease, typically by the administration of a vaccine. In essence, immunization is a proven tool for controlling and eliminating life-threatening, infectious diseases. It is also one of the most successful and cost-effective health interventions, and prevents between 2 and 3 million deaths annually from diseases such as diphtheria, measles, pertussis, pneumonia, polio, rotavirus diarrhoea, rubella and tetanus.
The goal of World Immunisation Week 2018 is to urge greater action on immunization around the world, with a particular focus on spotlighting the role that everyone can play in this effort, from donors to individuals.
During Vaccination Week, there are a number of activities usually planned in more than 180 countries across the world, including vaccination campaigns, training workshops, round-table discussions, public information campaigns etc to raise awareness about the importance of being immunized.
Like many other countries, for us in Guyana, this special week provides an opportunity to remind families and communities in general how effective vaccines can be, and to encourage people to take action to ensure that more children, and increasingly people in other age groups, are immunized against deadly and debilitating diseases.
According to WHO, there are more than 19 million unvaccinated or under-vaccinated children in the world, putting them at serious risk of contracting these potentially fatal diseases. Of these children, 1 out of 10 never receive any vaccinations, and most likely has never been seen by the health system.
The Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP) – endorsed by 194 Member States of the World Health Assembly in May 2012 – aims to prevent millions of deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases by 2020 through universal access to immunization. Despite improvements in individual countries and a strong global rate of new vaccine introduction, all of the GVAP targets for disease elimination—including measles, rubella, and maternal and neonatal tetanus—are behind schedule, according to the WHO.
In order for everyone everywhere to survive and thrive, countries must make more concerted efforts to reach GVAP goals by 2020. Additionally, those countries that have achieved or made progress towards achieving the goals must work to sustain those efforts over time – so that no person goes without life-saving vaccines.
To achieve the kind of progress that is needed, the WHO has urged that governments invest more in immunization efforts, advocates must make vaccines a priority, and people must get themselves and their families vaccinated.
Countries are also being urged to reach more children missed by the routine delivery systems, especially those living in countries, districts or areas where less than 80 per cent of them are receiving vaccines, or those living in countries affected by conflicts or emergencies.
When a child or adult who is unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated visits a health facility for any reason, their vaccination record should be checked by healthcare workers, and they should be given all vaccines they are missing.
That said, Guyana’s immunisation programme has been largely successful, and has resulted in the eradication of illnesses such as polio, yellow fever, and measles among others diseases. We urge all stakeholders to utilize World Vaccination Week, which is dedicated to immunization, to spread the message of the need to be vaccinated; especially in Guyana’s remote areas, where health officials still seem to be facing some challenges.
Guyana will continue to make steady progress if every stakeholder — including donors, health professionals, community leaders, school administrators and others — treats the issue of immunization more seriously.
