Here's How Many Lives Vaccines Save Each Year

Vaccines avert between 2 and 3 million deaths each year, but far too many infants still aren’t receiving lifesaving immunizations, according to the World Health Organization. Saturday marked the end of World Immunization Week, an awareness event that highlights gains and areas of need when it comes to disseminating vaccines. While there is cause to celebrate, WHO noted that vaccination targets are still “off track,” especially considering that an estimated 18.7 million infants did not receive routine immunization services in 2014. “Polio was eliminated in one country, tetanus in three, and rubella in one geographical region [last year],” Margaret Chan, WHO director-general, said in a statement. “The challenge now is to make gains like this the norm.” To that end, WHO is working to implement its Global Vaccine Action Plan. The goal is to ensure that by 2020, every person will be free of vaccine preventable diseases. Getting there will require strengthening health systems, better use of data and encouraging community involvement. That approach was critical with the recent gains in eliminating polio. In September, Africa became one step closer to putting an end to the highly infectious disease, which can cause irreversible paralysis. The WHO announced that the no new polio cases had been reported in Nigeria since July of 2014. It was the last country in Africa to still have endemic cases. Now, only Afghanistan and Pakistan remain polio ...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news