Immunization on the Front Line

Immunization is also highly effective.

Immunization rates rose by almost 5 per year.

National statistics on immunization back up the positive signs that I saw.

Immunization campaigns, when properly funded, have reached huge proportions of very poor children.

Millions of health workers like my colleagues and I make immunization their daily work.

But the one thing that we know about immunization is that we can reach everyone.

Until recently, this simply would not have been possible, at least not on the immunization front.

To protect every child, polio must be eradicated globally. Once it is, we may eventually be able to stop immunization against the disease, and save up to US 1.5 billion every year in averted immunization and treatment costs.

We are within a few years of ending deaths from malaria. Mass immunization has largely eliminated polio.

These included increased immunization coverage, initiatives to reduce school dropout rates, community based nutrition promotion, and micronutrient supplementation.

G 8 countries generous contributions to organizations like mine show that they understand the importance of childhood immunization.

Targeted attacks on field workers have hampered the process of immunization and have made it an unsafe job.

Without these funds, polio immunization activities will have to be postponed, cancelled or seriously cut back in several countries.

Now the same health systems and strong immunization services can act as a platform to help fight poverty, too.

People like Bill Gates and Kofi Annan will make the case that immunization programs deserve adequate funding and political support.

Raising global immunization coverage will speed progress toward the MDGs and generate momentum toward a successful post 2015 development agenda.

Just this month, we learned the tragic news that a guard accompanying health workers was killed during an immunization drive.

Building these routine immunization systems has already helped us to eradicate diseases like polio and all but one type of measles.

For immunization of this sort to be successful, it is important to first clarify what can turn someone into a jihadi .

Another intellectually fashionable approach is to conduct small randomized trials to examine, say, the effectiveness of school attendance incentives or immunization campaigns.

When well resourced, faith leaders can adopt holistic approaches to major killer diseases and use their networks effectively for immunization and combating pandemics.

Similarly, health conditions are horrendous, but could be improved dramatically just with immunization, de worming, safe water, antibiotics, and anti malaria bed nets.

The anti polio campaign started in 1993 in Pakistan under the program of National Immunization Days (NIDs) and has been going on ever since.

The Provincial Coordinator of the Expanded Program on Immunization Dr. Ishaq Panezai said that volunteers make up the bulk of vaccinators in the province.

Strengthening routine immunization will protect our gains against polio and enable us to reach the most vulnerable children in the hardest to reach and most underserved communities.

None of this means that we will not still face significant obstacles. But the one thing that we know about immunization is that we can reach everyone.

Although the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended including the hepB vaccine in routine immunization since 1992, its high price initially hindered its uptake in some developing countries.

Globally, international donors and UN agencies worked closely with national governments, tallying the exact needs for massive polio immunization campaigns aimed at reaching hundreds of millions of children.

Although the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended including the hepB vaccine in routine immunization since 1992, its high price initially hindered its uptake in some developing countries.

Smallpox was eradicated even in the most remote impoverished countries polio is well is on its way to eradication. Immunization campaigns, when properly funded, have reached huge proportions of very poor children.

I am particularly proud of the last achievement, because, by working in partnership with my fellow Mozambicans to expand immunization coverage, I believe that I have played a part in bringing it about.

And the summit in Abu Dhabi has provided a clear plan to get there by 2018 a strategy that complements other efforts to raise immunization coverage for diseases such as measles, pneumonia, and rotavirus.

To date, GAVI has helped countries immunize more than 13 million children against pneumococcal disease and five million children against rotavirus, with plans to strengthen its efforts in countries where immunization coverage is below 70 .

In partnership with the World Bank, the WHO, UNICEF, and the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation, it has used innovative financing tools to raise funds for global immunization programs, while working with industry to lower the prices of vaccines.

With poliovirus now endemic in just three remaining countries, we are already beginning to use the momentum that has carried eradication efforts so far to broaden the scope of routine immunization to reach more of the poorest children.

Development finance flows could be restructured, so that they are channeled through mechanisms like the International Finance Facility for Immunization, which binds ODA commitments over a long period and securitizes them in order to generate funds for immediate use.

With a new, comprehensive plan to be introduced at the Summit, the world will have a clear roadmap for creating a polio free world by 2018. The plan works hand in hand with our overall efforts to raise immunization coverage against other diseases like measles, pneumonia, and rotavirus.

Given the progress made in expanding vaccination programs in recent years, this revelation represents a unique opportunity for the global community, particularly as we begin to close the lid on polio. With poliovirus now endemic in just three remaining countries, we are already beginning to use the momentum that has carried eradication efforts so far to broaden the scope of routine immunization to reach more of the poorest children.