World Immunization Week 2017 observed with theme #VaccinesWork

World Immunization Week 2017 is being observed across the globe between 24 April and 30 April 2017.

The theme for the 2017 World Immunization Week is ‘VaccinesWork.’ The theme aims to raise awareness about the critical importance of full immunization throughout life, and its role in achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

As part of the 2017 campaign, WHO aims to:

• Highlight the importance of immunization as a top global health investment priority.
• Promote understanding of the action steps required to achieve the Global Vaccine Action Plan.
• Showcase immunization’s role in sustainable development and global health security.

The year 2017 marks the halfway point in the Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP). The GVAP was endorsed by 194 Member States of the World Health Assembly in May 2012. The GVAP aims to prevent millions of deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases by 2020 through universal access to immunization.

Vaccines prevent deaths

• Between 2010 and 2015, vaccines prevented at least 10 million deaths, and many millions more lives were protected from the suffering and disability associated with diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhoea, whooping cough, measles, and polio.

• The global push to end polio has reached its final stages. Only 3 countries are still working to eradicate polio.

• Successful immunization programmes enable national priorities, like education and economic development, to take hold.