The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that vaccines have prevented more than 150 million deaths over the past 50 years, as individuals chose to protect themselves, their children, and their communities from diseases such as measles, diphtheria, pertussis, polio, and rotavirus.
The organisation made this known in a statement on Friday as World Immunisation Week begins, running from April 24 to April 30.
During the commemoration, WHO and its partners are highlighting the importance of vaccines across all stages of life, alongside scientific advances that have produced effective vaccines against diseases including malaria, HPV, cholera, dengue, meningitis, RSV, Ebola, and mpox.
This year also marks the midpoint of Immunisation Agenda 2030, a global initiative led by WHO aimed at ensuring universal access to life-saving vaccines.
A recent report assessing progress so far showed that despite major challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical tensions, climate-related disruptions, and funding gaps, vaccination efforts over the last five years have prevented millions of deaths. However, many targets are still not being met, with gaps in routine immunisation coverage, equity, and outbreak control in several countries.
The UN health agency is now calling for stronger commitments to sustainable national immunisation programmes, better integration with primary healthcare, and increased attention from global health partners.
WHO, alongside UNICEF and GAVI, also announced that “The Big Catch-up” campaign, launched in 2023 to address immunisation declines caused largely by COVID-19, has reached about 18.3 million children aged one to five across 36 countries.
The initiative has also delivered 23 million doses of inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) to unvaccinated and under-vaccinated children, supporting global efforts toward polio eradication, with the programme projected to meet its target of vaccinating at least 21 million children.