The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in a new era for vaccines and immunization, reminding the world of the power of vaccines. To maximize the life-saving impact of immunization over the next decade, the World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners are launching the Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030), an ambitious global strategy that envisions a world where everyone, everywhere, at every age benefits fully from vaccines for good health and well-being.
Immunization is a vital component of primary health care, considered among the highest cost-benefit strategies for public health.
1. Immunization saves lives and protects people's health
Immunization has dramatically reduced the number of deaths from infectious diseases. Between 2010 and 2017, the mortality rate for children under 5 years old decreased by nearly a quarter. Measles vaccines alone have prevented 25.5 million deaths since 2000, and tremendous progress toward polio eradication through the vaccine has reduced cases by more than 99 percent since 1988.
Vaccines benefit not only infants and children, but also the elderly. They can prevent infection-related cancers caused by viruses such as hepatitis and HPV and protect the health of the working population, the elderly, and the vulnerable, enabling people to live longer and healthier lives. In addition, fewer infections mean a lower risk of transmitting diseases to relatives and other community members.
2. Immunization improves the productivity and resilience of countries
.Immunization is the foundation of a healthy and productive population. Every dollar invested in immunization programs in 94 low- and middle-income countries over the next decade will return more than $52 by reducing treatment costs, increasing productivity, and reducing long-term disability.
Vaccines also protect countries from the devastating economic impact of disease outbreaks. As we saw with the COVID-19 pandemic, disease outbreaks are disruptive and costly. They can overwhelm and profoundly disrupt public health programs, clinical services and health systems and keep children out of schooling programs. They can also have negative effects on travel, tourism, trade and the economy in general.
For seasonal diseases such as influenza, treatment costs and lost productivity are borne repeatedly. Immunized communities are resilient to infectious disease outbreaks, and robust health systems and immunization programs can quickly detect and limit the impact of infectious diseases.
3. Immunization helps ensure a safer and healthier world
.Vaccines are critical to global health security. Epidemics of highly infectious diseases, such as the morbillus and COVID-19, have shown us how quickly disease can spread between countries in an increasingly interconnected world. In 2019, measles cases increased in countries where it had previously been eliminated, in part due to low vaccination rates among travelers.
Immunization and active disease surveillance are core capacities required by the International Health Regulations (2005). They contribute to resilient and sustainable health systems that can respond to epidemics, public health risks, and emergencies.
What is vaccination?
Vaccination is a simple, safe and effective way to protect yourself from harmful diseases. It uses your body's natural defenses to build resistance to specific infections and strengthen your immune system.
Vaccines train your immune system to create antibodies, just as it does when it is exposed to a disease. However, because vaccines contain only non-viable or weakened forms of germs such as viruses or bacteria, they do not cause disease.
Most vaccines are administered by injection, but some are given orally (by mouth).
How do vaccines work?
Vaccines reduce the risks of contracting a disease by working with the body's natural defenses to create protection. When you receive a vaccine, your immune system responds:
- Recognizes the invading germ, such as a virus or bacteria;
- It produces antibodies, proteins naturally produced by the immune system to fight disease;
- Remind the disease and how to fight it. If you are exposed to the germ in the future, your immune system can destroy it quickly before you can get sick.
The vaccine is therefore a safe and intelligent way to produce an immune response in the body, without causing disease.
What diseases do they prevent?
Vaccines protect against many different diseases, including:
- Cervical cancer from HPV
- Colera
- COVID-19
- Diphtheria
- Ebola virus disease
- Hepatitis B
- Influenza
- Japanese encephalitis
- Mumps
- Meningitis
- Parotitis
- Pertussis
- Pneumonia
- Polio
- Rabies
- Rotavirus
- Rosolia
- Tetanus
- Typhus
- Varicella
- Yellow Fever
Some other vaccines are currently being developed or tested, including those that protect against the Zika or malaria, but they are not yet widely available globally.
Source:
Counting the Impact of Vaccines, World Health Organization and WHO
