
World Immunization Week
World Immunization Week – celebrated every year in the last week of April – aims to promote the use of vaccines to protect people of all ages against disease. Immunization saves millions of lives every year and is widely recognized as one of the world’s most successful health interventions. Yet, there are still nearly 20 million children in the world today who are not getting the vaccines they need, and many miss out on vital vaccines during adolescence, adulthood, and old age.
Why is World Immunization Week important?
Celebrated every year in the last week of April – aims to promote the use of vaccines to protect people of all ages against disease. Immunization saves millions of lives every year and is widely recognized as one of the world’s most successful health interventions.
While the world focuses on critically important new vaccines to protect against COVID-19, there remains a need to ensure routine vaccinations are not missed. Many children have not been vaccinated during the global pandemic, leaving them at risk of serious diseases like measles and polio. Rapidly circulating misinformation around the topic of vaccination adds to this threat.
In this context, this year’s campaign will aim to build solidarity and trust in vaccination as a public good that saves lives and protects health. To this end, we will be looking for more partners to join us, bringing people together in support of a lifesaving cause.
How to observe World Immunization Week at Work
As part of the 2021 campaign, WHO, partners, and individuals around the world will unite to:
- Increase trust and confidence in vaccines to maintain or increase vaccine acceptance
- Increase investment in vaccines, including routine immunization, to remove barriers to access
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Tip:
Each of us is responsible for stopping deaths and injuries on the job. As governments we are responsible for providing the infrastructure — laws and services — necessary to ensure that workers remain employable and that enterprises flourish; this includes the development of a national policy and programme and a system of inspection to enforce compliance with occupational safety and health legislation and policy. As employers, we are responsible for ensuring that the working environment is safe and healthy. As workers we are responsible to work safely and protecting ourselves and not to endanger others, knowing our rights, and participate in the implementation of preventive measures.
When workers aren’t alert to their surroundings because they are burned out, they are at an increased risk of having a work-related illness or injury. To stay fresh on the job, take regular breaks. Consider scheduling your most difficult jobs when you first arrive on the job. You will stay more alert.
Vaccines have brought us closer and will bring us closer again…
For over 200 years, vaccines have protected us against diseases that threaten lives and prohibit our development. With their help, we can progress without the burden of diseases like smallpox and polio, which cost humanity hundreds of millions of lives
Whilst vaccines aren’t a silver bullet, they will again help us progress on a path to a world where we can be together again. Vaccines themselves continue to advance, bringing us closer to a world free from the likes of TB and cervical cancer, and ending suffering from childhood diseases like tetanus and measles.
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Resources
Vaccination Week in the Americas Workbook
Planning and Evaluation Workbook
Preview / Download
Vaccination: An Act of Love – 10 Years of Vaccination Week in the Americas
Coffee table book
Preview / Download
Reference Sites
- UN and other international NGO
- Non-Profits website for the observance