The simple fact that 17% of the 130 million children born annually in the world do not receive basic vaccination In the first year of life it may not seem relevant. But when we know that many of these children suffer from fatal diseases because of this, the matter changes.
This is what the World Health Organization (WHO) wanted to highlight in a recent report. According to 2011 data about 22 million newborns were not immunized with the three recommended doses of the vaccine against three fatal diseases: diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP).
The Organization estimates that vaccination against these diseases and against measles, poliomyelitis and other preventable diseases saves between two and three million lives a year.
He believes that the vaccination of infants with DTP before they reach twelve months is one of the most important indicators of the coverage of vaccination programs, so much remains to be done despite the advances of recent decades.
And it is that 40 years ago, before the Expanded Program of Immunization of the WHO, less than 5% of the world-wide infantile population received these vaccines.
However, the number of unvaccinated children is still excessively high, so the WHO Health Assembly has approved this year a new global plan of action that aims to prevent millions of deaths until 2020. The plan, which pursues more equitable access of all communities to existing vaccinesIt has four objectives:
- Strengthen systematic immunization
- Accelerate control of preventable diseases through vaccination
- Introduce new vaccines and improve existing ones
- Stimulate research and development of the next generation of vaccines and technologies.
There will be those who continue to see the objectives of this plan to collect and in the process annoy the health of millions of people, but what organizations such as WHO or UNICEF are clear is that the strengthening of systematic immunization services is essential to achieve the fourth Millennium Development Goal: reduce mortality of children under five by two thirds.
