Geneva, April 24 (AFP\/APP): Global immunization efforts have saved at least 154 million lives in the past 50 years, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, adding that most of those to benefit were infants.<\/p>\n
That is the equivalent of six lives saved every minute of every year of the half-century, the UN health agency said.
\nIn a study published in the Lancet, WHO gave a comprehensive analysis of the impact of 14 vaccines used under the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), which celebrates its 50th anniversary next month.<\/p>\n
Thanks to these vaccines, \u201ca child born today is 40 percent more likely to see their fifth birthday than a child born 50 years ago\u201d, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.
\n\u201cVaccines are among the most powerful inventions in history, making once-feared diseases preventable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSmallpox has been eradicated, polio is on the brink, and with the more recent development of vaccines against diseases like malaria and cervical cancer, we are pushing back the frontiers of disease.\u201d
\nInfants accounted for 101 million of the lives saved through immunization over the five decades, said the study.<\/p>\n
\u201cImmunization was the single greatest contribution of any health intervention to ensuring babies not only see their first birthdays but continue leading healthy lives into adulthood,\u201d WHO said.
\nOver 50 years, vaccines against 14 diseases \u2014 diphtheria, Haemophilus influenza type B, hepatitis B, Japanese encephalitis, measles, meningitis A, pertussis, invasive pneumococcal disease, polio, rotavirus, rubella, tetanus, tuberculosis, and yellow fever \u2014 had directly contributed to reducing infant deaths by 40 percent, the study found.<\/p>\n
For Africa, the reduction in infant mortality was more than 50 percent, it said.
\nThe vaccine against measles \u2014 a highly contagious disease by a virus that attacks mainly children \u2014 had the most significant impact.<\/p>\n
That jab accounted for 60 percent of the lives saved due to immunization, according to the study.
\nThe polio vaccine means that more than 20 million people can walk today who would otherwise have been paralyzed.
\nThe study also showed that when a vaccine saves a child\u2019s life, that person goes on to live an average of 66 years of full health on average \u2014 with a total of 10.2 billion full health years gained over the five decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cVaccines cause adults,\u201d Tedros said.
\nWHO stressed that the gains in childhood survival showed the importance of protecting progress on immunization.
\nIt highlighted accelerating efforts to reach 67 million children who missed at least one vaccination during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
The UN health agency, along with the UN children\u2019s agency UNICEF the Gavi vaccine alliance, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, on Wednesday launched a joint campaign called \u201cHumanly Possible\u201d.
\nIt is aimed at scaling up vaccination programs around the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy working together we can save millions more lives, advance equity, and create a much healthier and more prosperous world,\u201d Violaine Michell of the Gates Foundation told journalists.<\/p>\n
But efforts to ensure broader vaccine coverage have increasingly run into anti-vax movements and conspiracy theories circulating on social media.
\nThis was particularly clear during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it has also taken its toll on efforts to avert measles outbreaks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere has been a very significant backsliding in the use of the measles vaccine and the coverage that has been achieved in countries around the world, and that is resulting in outbreaks,\u201d WHO vaccine chief Kate O\u2019Brien told journalists.<\/p>\n
In 2022, the last year for which there are clear statistics, more than nine million measles cases were registered around the world, including 136,000 children who died.
\nLack of access to the vaccines was a major concern, said O\u2019Brien, but part of the backsliding was attributable to \u201cmisinformation and anti-vax movements\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe measles vaccine is a safe vaccine, and it\u2019s highly effective,\u201d she insisted, stressing the need to ramp up efforts against \u201cone of the most infectious viruses that infect humans\u201d.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Geneva, April 24 (AFP\/APP): Global immunization efforts have saved at least 154 million lives in the past 50 years, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, adding that most of those to benefit were infants. That is the equivalent of six lives saved every minute of […]<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105030,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-world-news"],"yoast_head":"\n